Tea
"Katniss! Katniss, where do you keep the sugar in this house?" Peeta called to me up the stairs. I feebly attempted to climb from my cardboard box jail to no avail. I decided that poking my head around the corner would suffice. His worried face was apparent from down the stairs.
"There's some in the cabinet to the left of the sink. Move it if you want, you'll use the kitchen more than I will," I said, hoping to reassure the worries he'd gained in the past few weeks. We had just announced our official engagement and now it came time for us to start living together. I had to admit the thought of having Peeta around all the time was both exciting and nerve-wracking. There was nothing I could hide and no reason he couldn't help me. We were becoming that blissfully in love couple living off nothing but their romance. Despite what we were beginning to become we both were still sliding past the phase of ultimate anxiety.
"Katniss, I can't find any! I'm running next door," he announced. I always thought it was silly when he called his house "next door" as if it now was no longer a part of him. It was all very endearing but occasionally I wanted him to recognize that his house was still a part of who he was before he was mine. He brought many things with him to my house but his forgetful nature meant many trips across the lawn to get things like oven mitts.
The large influx of new material meant a clean sweep for me. I had to clean out all of my drawers and split them in half. His boxes had been stacked in a pile in the corner for at least two weeks by now. During my daring endeavor I found Peeta's paintings of the games and debated packing them back up, but they ended up going up in the study as a reminder of how we got here. While going through his boxes I found bloody t-shirts and interview outfits, all of which I promptly threw in a box in the attic. No matter what I did, the games found their way into my life. I agreed with Peeta that it was better to embrace it as part of us, because the Capitol didn't change us, we changed the Capitol. Despite his hopeful thinking, I found myself blinking away tears more often than I had hoped. While going through my drawer of game things I found a folded up parachute in between the 74th games recordings and my locket. Folded up in the parachute was the pearl Peeta gave me in the Quarter Quell. It was just as soft as I remembered. I put it in my pocket with the intention of showing it to Peeta.
I folded down another box and moved on to the next. I wished I'd given Peeta this task as it was quickly becoming fairly boring. I hadn't the slightest idea what he was doing downstairs but it was beginning to smell wonderful in the house. Cheese biscuits would be a nice surprise for when I finished, I only hoped we were working at the same wavelength. When the dresser was finished and the box pile was small enough to shove in the closet I stood on my wobbly unused legs and hobbled my way down the stairs. After closing the door to the study, I turned around to find Peeta in the kitchen.
He had littered the counters with cakes and cookies. My biscuits were there next to the loaves of bread and rolls. My jaw dropped. Peeta sat with a mug next to him painting a cake. I slowly approached him, laying a hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly at my touch but quickly relaxed as I rubbed his shoulder. He turned and managed a weary smile. I sat on his knee and played with his hair.
"It looks gorgeous," I commented. He brightened at my comment before seemingly realizing what he'd done.
"I was just nervous. I bake when I'm nervous," he confessed. I giggled and he looked at me with hurt in his eyes.
"Its fine, in fact, it's lovely," I whispered, looking out across the counter seeing more food than the kitchen had ever had before. His smile became giddy and I realized just how manic he was acting.
"I'm going to make some petit fours next," he announced, standing up and picking up his mug.
"I don't even know what those are Peeta," I laughed. He looked up at me with a wispy grin. He loved surprising me. Peeta poured himself some tea and added three spoonfuls of sugar.
"You take you tea with sugar now?" I asked, scrunching my eyebrows together. I wondered if the hijacking was coming back to him, or maybe he was so nervous that he was turning to sugar addiction, whatever it was it was out of character. He walked back over with his hot tea and set it down.
"No, but you do," he replied, pushing it towards me. He rubbed his thumb across my forehead forcing me to stop knitting my eyebrows. His reassuring smile calmed me from my volatile state. I hadn't even realized how on edge I was until he pointed it out. I held the warm mug in my hands as he traced my cheekbone with his thumb. I closed my eyes and he leaned in a stole a kiss. Immediately any doubts I had about moving in together were gone. I took the pearl out of my pocket and put it into his hand. He looked up at me. I motioned him closer so I could whisper in his ear.
"I love you."