*Set during the first book in the cave. I just added some more depth and heat to a scene that I am already in love with. I own nothing. Suzanne Collins is a genius. This started out as an idea I had for Katniss giving Peeta a massage in the 2nd book that led to more, but I could never make it come full circle. Then I thought with Peeta's experience with kneading bread, he would be the better masseuse anyways, and this story was born. I hope you like it. Rated T for a bit of PG -13 action. Told from a third person point of view, so I can incorporate what both characters are thinking.
It had been raining all day, and Peeta and Katniss both knew that the gamemakers were still trying to make Cato and Thresh go head to head. Haymitch had not sent them any more food even after they had shared a sweet moment the night before. Katniss had figured out his plan, but Peeta was still in the dark honestly lost in his real love for Katniss. Katniss wasn't in love with Peeta, but she wasn't exactly indifferent. Though she had been playing at being a love-sick girl, she had realized that she really did care about Peeta as more than a friend, and it mattered to her whether or not he lived or died.
They were snuggled up using the sleeping bag as a blanket to keep warm propped up against the cave wall when Katniss started rubbing at her shoulders. "What's wrong?" Peeta asked. "My shoulders hurt," Katniss replied honestly. "All this worrying about you has made me tense." She said it in a flirty voice, and he smiled at the thought of her caring so much. She continued. "Back home when my shoulders would hurt from hunting, mom would put this small yellow ball in a sock, and I would roll it around on my back either against the wall or on the floor. It worked so great for sore muscles. Wish I had one now."
Peeta was excited. Finally something he could contribute. Katniss was the real brawn of this duo with her survival skills, and he had felt pretty useless. "Well," he started. "I don't have a tennis ball, but I can offer you two hands that have kneaded dough for probably about a million hours. I'd say they'd work well for sore muscles too." Peeta held up his hands and grinned, and Katniss could not help but grin back. She was quite sure his strong hands would feel great on her sore shoulders. He was offering her closeness and relief, both of which she didn't want to turn down, and maybe if the audience liked it they could even get some food. They had shared a rather passionate kiss the evening before to no avail, so the sponsors must be looking for something even more interesting or personal.
"Are you sure?" she asked truthfully concerned as they weren't exactly either one in the best physical shape. "Absolutely," Peeta said patting the cave floor in front of him. Katniss moved so she was sitting cross-legged in between Peeta's outstretched legs. That position was most comfortable for him anyways as his leg was still heeling. She draped the sleeping back over their legs, so they could keep warm. "Take off your jacket too and put it on your arms from the front if you don't mind," Peeta instructed. That would be one less layer to get through to help relieve her tense muscles. Katniss did so, and just as she had slipped her right hand through the jacket hole from the front, she felt Peeta reach around her and grab her wrist. He was after the band she wore to tie back her hair, which right now was completely down.
Katniss sighed and closed her eyes as Peeta ran his fingers through her waist long hair to gather it into a ponytail. He gently banded it near the nape of her neck and then positioned it across her left shoulder so it wouldn't be in his way. It reminded Katniss of their first night in the cave when Peeta had insisted she sleep and rubbed her hair for a while. It had felt so good and comforting, just like this, and things were about to get even better. Peeta placed his hands on Katniss' shoulders and gently started massaging. It felt so good, Katniss felt like she could fall asleep on the spot. As his fingers begged for her muscles to give in, she couldn't help continuing to hold herself a bit taught. She and Peeta had kissed at least a dozen times now and had been sharing the sleeping bag each night, but for some reason, this act struck Katniss as even more intimate. It was probably because she had seen her mom offer her dad massages when he worked long days in the coal mine.
Sensing she wasn't fully letting go, Peeta leaned forward and whispered, "Just relax." His words tickled her ear and sounded soothing and sexy all at the same time, but she listened to him. She took a deep breath closing her eyes again and tried to let her body melt into relaxation. "There you go," Peeta said encouragingly as his hands continued to work their magic. Magic may have even been an understatement. Years and years of kneading dough really had made him somewhat of an expert at this. He was applying just the right amount of pressure, and his strong hands made Katniss feel warm and safe. When he hit a particularly large knot near Katniss' right shoulder blade, she sighed with relief and allowed her head to hand forward. "Is that too hard?" Peeta asked gently as he increased the pressure to try and work out the knot. "No," Katniss said back. "It feels amazing," she said truthfully. Peeta smiled, and for a moment, he was able to forget their dire circumstances. Though he knew cameras were trained on them, he let himself believe for just a minute that he was truly alone with Katniss and just enjoyed making her feel better.
As Peeta massaged Katniss' neck and shoulder muscles, he told her about the art of baking and how some breads you have to knead longer than others. She was surprised to hear how much work it could be and was super interested in the Sourdough bread, which Peeta would knead for more than half an hour and after that, it still had to rise for another two hours. She'd never had Sourdough bread she told him, and Peeta promised that he'd bake her some as soon as they were back home in District 12. The thought warmed her heart but made her stomach growl. Surely the audience likes this Katniss thought to herself, but she was again wondering if they were looking for something more personal than physical. She wasn't good at that, but Peeta was, so she decided to get him talking.
"You can stop if you're tired," Katniss said. "I'm not tired," Peeta said. He honestly wasn't, and he was in no way ready to take his hands off Katniss. She was like putty under his touch right now, and he loved it. When he'd worked out most of the knots in her shoulders he boldly moved his hands further down so he could focus on her mid and lower back. "Mmm," Katniss moaned. "That feels so good." Peeta was practically in ecstasy at the thought he was making her so comfortable.
"Peeta?"
"Hmm?" he said back.
"You said in the interview that you'd had a crush on me forever right? When did forever start?"
Peeta smiled. He was touched that she was interested in talking about this, and he had been dying to tell her this story since he was 5 years old.
"Well, let's see," Peeta said as he continued Katniss' massage. "It was the first day of school. We were five, and my dad pointed to you and said, 'See that little girl over there. I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner.'"
"What? You're making that up?" Katniss replied.
"Nope, true story," said Peeta. "And I said back, 'A coal miner? Why would she marry a coal-miner when she could have had you?' and he said, 'because when he sings even the birds stop to listen.'"
Katniss smiled broadly and was moved at the thought of the baker telling Peeta this.
"That's true," she said. "They do; well, they did," she added quietly. Not wanting her to get too sad about her father, Peeta kept going. "So later that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the Valley song, and your hand shot right up. She stood you on a stool and had you sing it for us, and I swear every bird outside stopped to listen."
Katniss laughed. "Oh, please," she said.
"It's true," Peeta replied. "And I knew right then, just like your mother, I was a goner. So for the next 11 years, I tried to get up the nerve to talk to you."
"Without success," Katniss said.
"Without success," Peeta said back then added honestly. "So, in a way, the reaping was a real stroke of luck for me."
Katniss was overwhelmed with happiness and confusion. They were supposed to be playing at being in love, not actually being in love, but this story had so much truth to it. The part about her dad and her singing on the first day of school, and if this was true, could it all be true? It would explain why Peeta had taken a beating all those years ago to risk giving her the bread on the day that changed her life.
Katniss turned her head so she could look back in Peeta's big blue eyes. He smiled at her gently. "You have a remarkable memory," she said haltingly as she continued to process the story.
"I remember everything about you," he said and reached forward to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear that had fallen out of the loose ponytail he'd created at the beginning of her massage. "It's you who wasn't paying attention."
Katniss acted on instinct letting her jacket and the sleeping bag fall to the floor in front of her and turning herself around so that she could face Peeta. She gently uncrossed her legs and planted one foot each on the outside of Peeta's legs. "I am now," she said in a flirty voice. Peeta wasn't sure he was breathing. Katniss was so close to him and openly flirting. He went with his old faithful, humor. "Well, I don't have much competition here," he said grinning. She smiled at him so sweetly, and then tilted her head slightly as she looked into his eyes as if she was coming to some sort of realization. Then she smiled sweetly, and said, "You don't have much competition anywhere," and she leaned into kiss him.
Peeta welcomed the unexpected gesture, but he didn't at all expect the fire behind it. They had shared a really amazing kiss the night before, but it paled in comparison to this. Katniss wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him so hungrily that he fought the urge to moan. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Katniss was again acting on instinct. She had been so moved by Peeta's story and the realization that this wasn't a game to him, and then she looked into those big blue eyes and wanted to melt, and something about the cave, and the rain, and their closeness during the massage just allowed her to let herself get carried away.
Peeta was the first boy she'd ever kissed, but she just somehow knew what to do. She was also letting him lead. Peeta's mind was foggy, and he wasn't sure his heart was still beating. Katniss was making no effort to pull away like in their quick kisses up until now. They were in a full-on make out session. As both their mouths opened, Peeta gently slipped his tongue into Katniss' mouth. He knew she liked it because she wrapped her arms even tighter around him and mimicked his movements with her own tongue. Peeta allowed his hands to run down Katniss' back and without thinking slipped them under her backside so that he could pull her up off of the cave floor and onto his lap. He knew it was the right decision because she closed her legs around him tightly and continued kissing him deeply. It was as if she couldn't get close enough to him, and that was fine with him. He could feel his arousal growing beneath her lap, but he figured Katniss was either too innocent to realize what was happening or she honestly didn't mind because she seemed to have no plans of stopping. The truth was Katniss could feel it and was flattered that she was turning him on. She was turned on too. She had never allowed herself to think about being so physically close with a boy, and she loved it. Who knew it was fighting for their lives that would bring them here?
Peeta and Katniss had been heavily making out for about 15 minutes, only breaking apart to briefly catch their breath when something suddenly clunked loudly outside the cave. They both jumped, pulled immediately out of their intimate moment back into the games. Katniss scrambled off Peeta's lap reaching for her bow, while Peeta grabbed a nearby knife and stood up in front of her protectively. He peered out the cave's entrance though, and instead of another tribute ready to kill them, he saw a silver parachute. Before Katniss could even react, he rushed out into the rain and handed it inside to her. They ripped it open eagerly to find a feast complete with Katniss' favorite, lamb stew. Though both Katniss and Peeta were disappointed about the interruption to their make-out session, they were both so hungry and grateful for the meal. "I guess Haymitch finally got tired of watching us starve," Peeta said as they ate, but Katniss knew the truth. Though she had thoroughly enjoyed herself, she knew that between the mushy love stuff and the kissing they had made for pleasing tv tonight, and that's why they had gotten food.
They ate a lot but rationed the food, so they would have enough if it continued to rain and keep them from hunting one and maybe two more days. The food was hot and steamy just like their make-out session. Katniss could barely look at Peeta without blushing as she couldn't even try to forget what had just happened.
Katniss and Peeta ate as slowly as they could trying to savor everything, and when their bellies were actually somewhat full, both of their eyes started to droop. Food, especially comfort food has a way of making you sleepy. They wrapped up what was left and stored it in the driest corner of the cave then started to move towards sleep. Katniss volunteered to take first watch. It was cold, so they climbed in the sleeping bag together as they had done the previous nights. Peeta spooned Katniss from behind, his arm resting protectively over her as she watched the entrance of the cave with her bow close by. She couldn't imagine anyone would be trying to hunt them down in this weather, but she stayed alert none the less. Peeta drifted off to sleep quickly. She felt him stir a few hours later. He hugged her close and said, "Your turn." She was exhausted and grateful it was her turn to rest. She rolled over in the sleeping bag so she was facing Peeta and moved so she could rest her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "Katniss?," he said quietly now stroking her hair with his right hand. "Hmmm," she said sleepily. "About what happened earlier…" he paused…"That was amazing."
Katniss smiled against his chest. She knew he was talking about their make-out session. "I couldn't agree more," she said looking up to meet his eyes. The cave was pretty dark, but they could see each other's blush and grins. Katniss reached up to give him a quick kiss then settled back down against his chest, which she was now drawing light circles on with her fingers. "You're the first boy I ever kissed you know," she decided to admit.
Peeta couldn't believe his ears. He had been certain she and Gale had been dating back in District 12, so the thought that she had never kissed anyone had never crossed his mind. "You're kidding?" he said back feeling a combination of shock and wonder. The thought of him being her first kiss made his heart swell. "No, it's true," she said back. "It's funny; I didn't have time for that sort of thing back in District 12. I was always focused on just keeping my family from starving, and now here we are fighting to survive and not starve, and suddenly, I have time for dating. President Snow is a matchmaker." They both laughed.
"Well," Peeta said. "For what it's worth, I would have never believed you didn't have any experience because you are an amazing kisser." "Really?" Katniss said flattered. "Thanks, so are you, but I bet you've kissed lots of girls." The last part came out a little quieter than she intended as she realized she was jealous of those girls. "Not a lot," Peeta responded lifting her chin back up so he could see her face. "Just a few here and there on a dare at a birthday party or something, but none of them mattered. I told you, since we were five, it's always been you."
Katniss didn't care if Peeta was playing for the cameras or telling the truth, it was exactly what she wanted and needed to hear. The young loves kissed again, and then Katniss cuddled up against Peeta and drifted off to sleep. Peeta stared at the cave opening and thought about the girl he held in his arms. He couldn't believe what he was thinking, but right now, in a damp cave in the middle of a deadly game, he was truly happy. He kept watch while day-dreaming of a future with Katniss outside the games.
*The end. I hope you enjoyed it.