And Then Something Changed

Chapter 1

* Ding*
Your captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign.

Katniss stretched her arms above her head and checked her watch. Two more hours until her plane lands and she gets to see him. Her cheeks flush now when she thinks of Peeta, which never used to happen before. She picks up her phone and looks back at the texts they shared last night.

Peeta: What? You want to play 21 questions? What are we, back in middle school? You must be very bored, or very drunk

Katniss: A little of both, but come on! I'm celebrating, I'm coming home after 3 months in the arctic!

Peeta: Ok, ok, you go first. I'm going to have to get on your level for this. I'll grab my rum.

Katniss groaned. "Why did I always text him when I was drunk?" she mumbled to her self as she continued to scroll through her texts. She had missed Peeta, and though they knew just about everything about each other, she had wanted to know more that night.

Peeta: I'm not going to answer that.

Katniss: Boo! You have to, it's against the rules

Peeta: Let me see the rulebook

Katniss: It's a simple yes or no

Peeta: Asking me whether or not I masturbate to you is NOT a simple yes or no, Katniss

Katniss: Fine, you asked me personal questions, but mine is over the line?

Peeta: Yes

Katniss: Yes, it's over the line?

Peeta: No. Yes to your question.

She felt her heart clutch and her cheeks flush. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Why had she asked him that? Damn that whiskey. She had always been curious, and she did find her self, on more than one occasion, thinking about Peeta in not such a PG light, but she never thought he did too.

She was worried this would ruin their friendship, but he still confirmed with her that he would be picking her up from the airport when she arrived.

She put her phone away and pulled out her laptop. She looked through the photos she had taken over her 3 months at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Fairbanks Alaska. She loved her job, she worked as a free-lance photographer, and it allowed her to travel all over, but lately she wanted to stay in one place. Traveling was getting very lonely, which was an odd thing since Katniss prided herself in being very independent.

Her airplane taxied to the gate and she walked to the baggage claim. There he was. Peeta was standing at the baggage claim and Katniss raked her eyes over him. His blonde hair was shorter than the last time she saw him, he was wearing a blue button up shirt that was pushed up above his elbows and jeans. He looked really, really, good.

"Katniss!" he saw her and moved to her with his arms open. "Peet!" Katniss giggled and half ran into his arms, he lifted her off of the grown and spun her around. As he was putting her down they froze their mouths an inch apart. Katniss felt a hunger, a want, a need to kiss him, but soon, he was unwrapping his arms from behind her and stepping away.

Peeta cleared his throat and avoided eye contact. There was an awkward silence for a few beats as they both just stared as the baggage started to spin around the claim area. Things were never awkward between them, Katniss felt dread and regret. Peeta turned his head to look at her up and down, a way he had looked at her 100 times.

"So, how was your flight?" Peeta said, finally breaking the silence. "Oh, uh, it was, you know, long" She said, staring straight ahead, tugging on her braid. "Right" Peeta responded. He suddenly reached over and gave her a side hug "I really missed you", "I missed you too" Katniss said while allowing herself to look into the blue eyes of her best friend.

Once she collected her baggage they walked out to Peeta's car. Their walk was mostly silent, and Katniss spent most the time staring at her shoes. She silently cursed herself for their texting, she didn't like things being awkward between them. He was her best friend, he was all she had now that Prim, her sister, was in medical school and too busy to answer her phone calls. She must of let out a sigh, because she could feel Peeta's eyes looking her over.

"Hey, about last night…" Peeta started

"I know, god, I'm so sorry, I was drunk…" Katniss interrupted

"No, no don't be sorry, seriously, we don't need to apologize or be awkward around each other, let's just, you know, go back to normal" Peeta offered. Why had he answered that question? Now she could barely look at him.

"I'd really like that" Katniss responded with a smile and turned towards him. Peeta wrapped her in another hug and Katniss breathed in that Peeta smell.

"Hey, I have some good news to tell you, how about I make you dinner at my place?" Peeta said after he let Katniss go.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I missed your cooking! Yes, please, that sounds amazing" Katniss exclaimed

Once back at Peetas apartment, Katniss walked around the familiar space, she had been here more times than she could count. She loved the smell of it, how neat he always kept it, and how everything was just…Peeta. She picked up the Elephant trinket she had sent him from Thailand and turned it over in her hand. When she set it down she noticed he had all of the trinkets she had given him over the years, even the friendship bracelet she made him back in elementary school. The bracelet was draped over the corner of a picture of them at their high school graduation. They had been best friends for so long, how had she never noticed how handsome he was until now. She knows that other girls had thought so, and were insanely jealous of their relationship, but Peeta never seemed interested in them. She turned to look at him. He was in the kitchen kneading dough, zoned out on what he was doing.

She took her camera out of her bag and started taking pictures of him. She couldn't help it, he looked so at ease, so handsome, her Peeta. He snapped out of what he was thinking about and looked up to her and smirked as she took another photo.

"Why all the pictures of boring old me?" He asked with a smile

"Oh, just taking a picture of Peeta in his natural environment" she teased. She hopped up on the bar stool that faced the kitchen. She watched him work, and they were both silent for a long time.

"I've missed this" Katniss said finally. Peeta looked up at her after putting the bread in the oven. "I have too, I feel like it's been forever".

The two started at each other from across the kitchen, both taking each other in. Neither was sure how long they sat like that, but it was Katniss this time that broke the tension. She hopped off the stool and walked over to the couch and turned on the T.V.

"Anything good on?" Peeta called from the kitchen as he prepared the Chicken Kiev for their dinner.

"Uh, hmm…looks like Thor is on, any interest? Oh wait, Dance Moms reruns!" Katniss responded as she tucked her legs up underneath her.

Peeta laughed as he watched her. She was beautiful, he had always known that, but after not seeing her for 3 months, his eyes were greedily taking her all in. Her dark hair braided into her usual braid, her stormy eyes fixated on the T.V., her tiny figure in a hoodie and jeans. The timer dinged and brought him back to reality.

"Dinner is ready!" he called once he checked the doneness of everything. He brought the food to the dinning table and then went back to the kitchen to open a bottle of wine. "Red or white?" he called to Katniss as she sat down at the table.

"Hmm, white" she called back. He brought the wine to the table with two glasses and poured them each a glass.

"So, tell me, what's this good news?" Katniss asked as he sat down across from her. "The expansion is complete! I now have a bakery slash café!" He exclaimed with a huge smile, which Katniss had to return, his smiles were intoxicating. She was ecstatic for him. "Oh, Peeta! That's fantastic! I am so happy for you" she reached across the table to grab his hand. Their fingers laced together and they stared at each other, smiling. Katniss could feel the heat radiating from their hands. She looked at their hands and sadly, removed her hand from his and picked up her wine glass. She cleared her throat and shook her head, trying to stop her cheeks from turning red. "To you" She said, raising her glass in a toast. Peeta smiled and clinked his glass against hers. Both took sips with out looking at each other. Peeta could still feel the heat where she had touched his hand. There was definitely something different between them now.