Peeta Mellark strode up to one of the four bars in the grand ballroom located near the corner of the enormous dance floor at the lavish Panem Park Conservatory. Plastering a fake smile across his face, he silently counted down the hours that he was required to be here. Best man, he thought morosely, what a joke. He felt a hand on his arm as he tried to raise his scotch and soda to his lips and cocked his head to the side to see the offender, "Yes Delly?" He asked in a saccharinely sweet voice.
She looked at him with those sad eyes. Pity. It was a relatively new look for her; he had always been the happy one, the one who buried any pain under exuberance and a smile. The two of them had been close friends since their mother's would have lemonade together and gossip about their neighbors (or rather a spiked lemonade as Peeta discovered when he tried to take a sip of his mother's). They had seen each other through the worst of times, the abuse Peeta had endured at the hand of his own mother, the loss of both of their fathers, and the best of times when Peeta had built his own bakery and when he had walked Delly down the aisle to her happily ever after with her husband Thom. "Peeta, we're worried."
"Del, I'm fine."
"Peeta, you were glowering at the glass."
"I'm wasn't glowering, I was pensive."
"Uh huh," she muttered taking the glass from his hand and placing it down on the bar top. "Let's just take that before you break it powerhouse, that poor glass didn't do anything to you."
He rolled his eyes and let his gaze wander onto the dance floor where he caught sight of a petite brunette slipping through the glass side door of the Conservatory. She was wearing shorter ivory dress that looked similar to Glimmer's bridesmaids, but not as gaudy. She didn't look familiar, he would have remembered her from the group of overworked and overdone bridesmaids he'd been subjected to all week.
"Peeta are you listening to me at all?" Delly grumbled.
His blue eyes flashed back to the curvy blonde at his side, "Sorry what?"
"We're all, Finnick, Annie, Thom and I, we're all worried. Maybe you should go home Peeta, you don't have to be subjected to this bullshit anymore.
"I can't let down my family, Del, and Rye…"
"Fuck Rye Peeta, he fucked you over. They don't deserve you, your dad would have wanted better for you."
Peeta sighed and ran his fingers through his curly blonde hair, "He would at least want me to partake in all the free food," he grinned.
Delly rubbed his back and pushed herself up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek, "Probably, and make sure the cake was perfect."
"Yeah…" he trailed off, the girl in the ivory dress catching his attention again as she moved from the crowded buffet line to one of the tables in the corner of the room, mostly obstructed by Glimmer's overly exuberant décor.
Delly followed his eye line, "Well if you decide to stick around, get her number. That's the most I've seen you look at another girl in months and you need it; get over the ice princess."
"Delly I –"
"Stop," she said holding out her hand, "You don't have to put on a front here, I know you're miserable, now go try and be happy."
Peeta shook his head, "Fine."
As he walked across the dance floor towards the corner where the mystery girl was he picked up two pieces of cake that were sitting on the cake display table. As he approached her he could feel the air tense around him. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her dark hair was in loose curls, that ivory dress fit her like it was made for her, and her gray eyes held a beautiful sadness to them.
He placed the dessert plate in front of her, startling her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I usually walk so loud everyone can hear me from a mile away."
She looked up at him, her gray eyes looked almost silver in the light but were red rimmed as if she had been crying. Her lips were drawn in a tight line. She was the dictionary definition of 'don't fuck with me'.
"You look as miserable as I feel; I find cake usually helps," he said congenially offering her a fork.
Her face softened from a glare to something more neutral as she mumbled, "Thanks."
"Mind if I sit?" Peeta gestured to the chair next to her.
"They say misery loves company," she said quietly as she picked out the cake.
Peeta fell into the glittery white seat and looked out onto crowded dance floor, "So," he began with a small smile on his lips, "What brings you to crash my brother's wedding?" He asked teasingly.
Her eyes darted quickly to his face and she looked ready to make a run for it, "I – "
"Relax," he interrupted placing his large hand on her much smaller forearm.
He felt her tense under his hand for a second and then relax, "How'd you know?"
"I saw you sneak in, you went straight to a table with a bunch of food, you didn't talk to anyone, key signs from when some of my buddies and I were in college and were on the prowl for free food."
"Classy," she responded, bringing the cake to her lips.
"A guy's got to eat," he shrugged. "Plus, Glimmer would have never let anyone who looked better than her in here."
She raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"I'm Peeta Mellark," he said offering her his hand.
"Katniss Everdeen," she replied carefully.
"So, what brings you here, Katniss Everdeen?"
She let her fork drag across the finely embellished dessert plate, scratching a thin fine silver line into the pattern, she took a deep breath and then sighed, remaining silent.
"Well I'll start then," Peeta continued. His natural gift for words coming back to him, "My brother just married the woman I thought I was going to marry."
Katniss's face dropped as she cocked her head to look at him, "What?"
"That girl up there in white, was my girlfriend 7 months ago. We were together for three years and then I caught her with my brother and here we are, he's getting married and I'm the Best Man."
"Well she sounds like a real piece of work. And frankly your brother sounds like an asshole. I don't even know why you're here."
"Don't hold back," Peeta chuckled, laughing for the first time in months.
"Sorry," she mumbled, shoveling another piece of cake into her mouth, "This is really good by the way," she gestured to the cake.
Peeta truly smiled for the first time in months, baking was the one thing lately that had made him happy, that was until meeting Katniss tonight, "Thank you, I made it."
"Peeta," she groaned, "You cannot make a delicious wedding cake for the bitch who tossed you aside for your, sorry to say, uglier brother, and your brother who completely broke some kind of brother code by going after your girlfriend. I really need to teach how to be surlier and not put up with that."
"You do, do you?" He grinned.
He saw the blush take over her cheeks as she responded, "Hmm…well you're obviously too nice. I'm not used to that."
"So I shared my embarrassing story – "
"That's only embarrassing to them Peeta, not you," she interrupted, unable to ignore how his blue eyes twinkled at her, or the way his blonde curls fell perfectly across his forehead.
"Thank you," he said, "So you?"
Katniss sighed deeply, staring at the crumbs on her plate again, "I was supposed to get married today," she said pointing to her ivory dress. "This had a thing that attached as a bigger skirt but uh… it didn't happen," she finished cautiously looking into those eyes.
"Damn…what happened?"
"I – uh…," she struggled to come up with the words as she angrily brushed a few tears from her eyes, "We were getting married out in the tents of the Conservatory, we were both really into nature and something wasn't right with Gale at our rehearsal dinner last night, it felt off. I wanted to talk to him before today. I went into the groom's lounge and he was there with uh…with my maid of honor. It was…it was biblical."
"Kat – "
She held up her hand urging him not to interrupt her, "I just walked out. Guest may be out there I don't know. I just couldn't do it. I tore off the attached skirt and just wandered in her in a daze. I still haven't even processed it. But how fucking cliché? My maid of honor?"
She heard the scrape of Peeta's chair on the wood floor and felt his arm curl around her shoulders and she let her head fall onto his shoulder, "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," she replied putting up a valiant effort not to cry again, "It's better I know now than a month from now or years from now. Maybe it's for the best, I don't even know if he loved me or if I loved him, it just felt like something we should have been doing because"
"Because you'd been together so long."
"Yeah," she sniffled, inhaling his familiar and comforting cologne. She'd known him all of an hour and he felt safer and more stable than anything in her life previously had. "I bet my sister is freaking out thinking I drove off a cliff or something by now."
"I have my cell phone in my suit jacket over at my table, you're free to borrow it," he offered.
"Maybe later, I don't really want to deal with her hysterics at the moment. Plus, I'm enjoying talking to you," she replied bashfully.
He squeezed her shoulder, "So this whole situation, we're kind of like a fucked up version of My Best Friend's Wedding?"
"I don't watch chick flicks," Katniss grinned.
Peeta's face flushed for a moment and then smiled, "Well then you're missing out. Brilliant cinema."
"Peeta, I think from the last hour I've spent with you, you are a chick flick in human form."
"Should I be insulted since you don't watch them?"
"I might make an exception in your case," she said truly happily grinning at him for the first time that night. She stood up and he admired her long tan legs set off perfectly by the beautiful ivory dress and offered him her hand and whispered, "Will Cinderfella dance again? And then... suddenly, the crowds part. And there she is, sleek, stylish, radiant with charisma," she smiles self-deprecatingly, "And she comes towards you... the moves of a jungle 'Kat'," she said slithering her body in a cat like motion, "And although you quite correctly guess she is a bit of an emotional mess at the moment like most newly dumped women of her age are, you think, what the hell, life goes on. Maybe there won't be marriage, maybe there won't be sex, but, by God, there'll be dancing."
Peeta snorted and then burst out in a hearty laugh taking her hand, "You, Katniss Everdeen, are a liar."
"I may have been in the room several hundred times when my little sister Prim was watching that," she winked pulling him towards the dance floor.
Peeta clutched her hand and followed her to the dance floor and pulled her in his arms as the band started crooning The Way You Look Tonight.
"Peeta," She said drawing his attention as they swayed back and forth together on the dance floor, "There was one part of your story you told me that you got right."
"What's that?" He asked smiling sweetly down at her.
"You are by far the best man here. You are far better than your brother deserves. And obviously better than that Malibu Barbie deserved."
He brushed his hand through her dark curled hair and smiled, "Thank you, Katniss. I think fate may have worked in a mysterious way tonight."
"Maybe we'll have to edit that last line about the no marriage and sex thing then," she grinned up at him.
"It would make for a better ending for my personal chick flick movie life," he assented, thinking maybe this wedding could be something positive.