A/N: My first attempt at The Hunger Games stories. Enjoy :)

Peeta and Katniss Pairing. Starts at the end of MockingJay, their return home and how they try to return to a normal life after all they encountered in their lives from the Capital, the Rebel War, to The Hunger Games. And the loss and death of so many loved ones. Time passes, they grow together and Katniss feels a new type of hunger.

Rating: K+ - T

Disclaimer: Story, rights and characters belong to Suzanne Collins. Nothing is mine except the idea of this story.


Normal

Normal.

It was being hungry. No, starving. To escape? Survive? Watching bones push through tight skin. Swollen bellies and sunken eyes.

There was always a mouth to feed whether your own or those you knew.

Normal use to mean death to anyone foolish enough to escape the electrical fence encasing Distric 12, to run or hunt. It didn't matter.

It use to mean a girl and boy who defied the norm to keep their families alive from the ever growing body count in their small town. Like I said, always a mouth to feed.

I let go of the taunt string, hearing the soft whoosh of my arrow as it cuts the air. Finding home in the eye socket of a grey squirrel. Another good kill to add to the haul.

Normal use to mean a partner to hunt with, to share stories, fears, dreams and-

"Gale." I whisper, and wonder if he can hear. I yank the arrow from the Squirrel's skull.

A Perfect kill.

I straighten up and turn around, expecting him to be standing there with his usual smirk and quip to irk me. How in the time it took to bag the squirel, he already snared 3 rabbits, shot 2 turkeys and brought down a deer with his bare hands.

I laugh like I could actually hear him tease me with his ridiculous tale. Then my eyes come to and see he's not really standing there saying those things. I shake my head. That's right, he's in District 2 now. I really can't say that I'm upset about it, either. Just mourning for the past, I guess.

Now, with all that has occurred with the Rebels, and war. The end of the Hunger Games and the fall of the old Capital. Normal has now become a girl alone in the woods, hunting, not becuase of starving. No, there will aways be a hunger, though, for something...Someone.

I still think about him sometimes, in District 2, wondering what his life is like. If there are other lips he is kissing. I'm sure there are. I think about our time, over 5 years, here amongst the Spruce and Pines, illegal kills in order to survive.

Our chats. Our laughs. Our anger...

And like he said would happen. It hits me, the reason I can't stand to think about him without thinking about-Don't.

It's only been four months since I been sent home. Released, under Haymitch's watch-Right. Many months since the fall of the old Capital, the end of the horrible war. The bombs and burning of innocent children in front of President's Snow house.

My chest tightens and it feels like my heart seizes up to an almost painful stop. I think I might be having a heart attack. But I'm only about to be 18. My hand grabs painfully tight against the rough bark of a tree close to me. The dead squirrel hanging limp in my other as I try to dispel feelings, memories from consuming me. Like a fire.

I lean my back against the tree, my hand instictively going to the pocket of my father's hunting jacket and fingers the cool Pearl inside.

It steadies me, makes me feel more rooted to the ground. Like the dirt isn't trying to swallow me up into some dark, deep abyss. You're not in the Hunger Games anymore, Katniss. I repeat to myself like a mantra.

And with the touch of the Pearl comes thoughts of the giver. Strong, blond-sandy hair, blue-eyes, son of a baker. A baker himself, with a heart I didn't deserve to claim.

The boy with the bread.

"Peeta." I say, almost sigh, and my lips can't help but hint at a smile. A genuine smile.

Finnick was right, there was-is something there. Something I still don't have a name to yet. That something that comes to me a little at a time day by day.

Love? I don't know. But obviously I do care and everyday I find that I do want to find out.

Without the daunting threat of death hanging over our heads from President Snow to convince him of our "love." Or the constant buzz and invasion of cameras relentless to catch every glimpse of the "Star-Crossed Lovers", around anymore.

All that pressure gone, comes the clarity to see, to feel honestly that something there between us...though slow going as it is. The latter being mainly on my end of things.

He doesn't push, he doesn't complain. He gives me space and time to figure it all out.

"You could live a thousand life times and still not deserve that boy." Creeps in Haymitch's words from what seemed like another life time ago.

"I know." I agree bitterly to my dinner lifted up in my left hand.

And Peeta knows, but yet he still loves me despite it. He seen my worst and best and still wants me.

His kind act just a few weeks ago comes to mind. The evening Primrose planted outside the house, my home in the Victor's Village. I wanted to thank him properly. To kiss him, foreal this time. But my emotions were so raw from her death. It took forever for me to be able to say her name without bursting into tears.

After finally digesting the fact he was back, Peeta home again. The dark inside me once again filled with his light. No, not white but colors of every hue possible. Emerald green grass, Orange, not like, once Effie's hair had been. But soft orange sunsets...

Now I really do have a stupid grin on my mouth. Lucky me he isn't around or he would know exactly why. I may be an open book but only he can read me.

"Come on," I say to my only companion right now in the woods. "We have a dinner to attend."

The squirrel doesn't objects, after stuffing him in the hunting bag. I scoop up my sheath of arrows with bow, slinging it on my back and head through the trees to District 12. To my home.


A/N: More to come! Hopefully you enjoyed! Please Review!