Au Pair in France

by keepmystrength

Hunger Games AU. Au pair: "An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family." (Wikipedia). Peeta Mellark needed a nanny for his son. Katniss just happened to be available... All the way from across the world.

1. Chapter 1

Au pair: "An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family." [CITATION AuP \l 8202 ]

This was inspired by my best friend who just became an Au Pair and moved away all on her own all across the World to France to make her dreams come true. Sof, my love for you is the size of the ocean that comes in between us and more.

The Hunger Games characters belong to Suzanne Collins.

Part 1/?

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Katniss clutched the hem of her wool sweater tightly in her hands. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest as the flight attendant's words resonated through the speaker.

"… Soyez bienvenue à l'aéroport international Charles de Gaulle, à Paris…"

As the stewardess kept welcoming the passengers to France and reminded everyone to mind their carry-on bags, Katniss's throat closed up and tears involuntarily dripped down her face while remembering the crying faces of her friends at the airport back home while saying goodbye to her. Her home, her friends, her country, all left behind.

Her chest hurt so badly, and she hoped she wasn't having a panic attack.

The other passenger next to her didn't pay her much attention, as she had been crying throughout the majority of the flight; he learned not to be too disturbed at the sounds of her sobs.

Pull yourself together; she snapped at herself, this isn't you.

She felt she had already cried enough for a lifetime, and composed herself slowly while the plane finished its landing. She took long and deep breaths to calm down, just as her father had taught her when they were out hunting in the woods. The memory of the woods back home and her father brought back a twinge of pain, but she numbed it down. She couldn't keep falling apart.

She didn't feel anything while walking out the plane and through the immense airport. She just walked by inertia, reading the signs and following the crowds all the way to immigration.

Her first thought was that she'd never been inside an airport so big nor never had she seen so many people from different nationalities. Asian, Americans, European, they all blended together in long lines in such harmony, everyone minding their own business, not talking, some with a nervous buzz, just waiting for their turn with the next immigration officer.

Her plane landed at 7:56 am, France time, and by the time it was finally her turn at the line it was nearly 9:00 am.

She distracted herself by logging into the airport's WiFi and quickly texted all her friends back home to let them know she had landed safely in Paris. It was 3:00 am in Panem, yet her friends answered within the first 15 minutes, waiting for her checkups, no doubt. Long lines of 'how are you feeling?', 'miss you already' and 'everything okay?' made her blink back tears, but she it was almost her turn. She couldn't be a crying mess while talking to the officer.

She quickly answered back that she'd be going through immigration and would text them later once she was safely home with her host family.

Home. She wasn't sure what home was anymore.

Once in immigration, the officer cordially asked for her passport and took a look at her VISA.

"What are you in France for?" he asked in nearly perfect English, not unkindly.

"I come with the Au Pair program," she answered and mentally patted herself in the back when her voice didn't waver.

"Ah, enjoy your stay then. Welcome to France," he smiled and stamped her passport, quickly giving it back.

She stuttered a thank you and stuffed her passport in her carry-on bag, quickly walking to the luggage area to pick up her bags.

The carrousel was already running when she got to the designated AirFrance flight, but it took a few turns until she located her bags. She recognized them by the hot pink ribbons Johanna tied around the handle for that very reason. The thought made Katniss's lips inch upwards in a small smile.

With a bit of effort she got her bags off the carrousel and got them strolling through the airport's shiny floor, in the direction of the passengers pick up/drop off.

It was crazy how someone could fit their whole life in just two 70 pounds bags.

Though she had been feeling a little calmer since she got off the plane, her nerves were starting to kick back in the closer she got to the exit.

What if it was all a scam? What if she had spent all her life's savings in a plane ticket to the other side of the World for a guy who was just messing with her? What if he was a psycho?

He's not a psycho, Annie had promised her through the phone months before. He's very good friends with Finnick. He's a single and loving father who was screwed over by his kid's mother. Good riddance though! However, he needs help juggling his son and his business.

"Katniss!" someone yelled to her far left side.

Her eyes scanned over the sea of people and focused on a petite redhead, her petite redheaded friend, whom she hadn't seen in two years.

She juggled with her luggage and awkwardly ran as fast as she could towards Annie. As soon as they were within reach of each other she dropped her bags and embraced Annie as hard as she could, who eagerly returned the hug just as tight, tears dripping down both their cheeks.

She didn't know how long they'd been hugging each other when another body pressed against them, strong arms enveloping both her and Annie tightly.

"Bienvenue en France, Katniss!" Finnick squeaked against her ear.

Annie had been friends with Katniss since they were kids, both growing up in the same humble neighborhood. Although Annie was a few years older than her, they always got along just nicely, and she treated Katniss's late sister, Prim, as her own sister.

After she went to college and graduated as a vet, Annie's parents surprised her with a trip to New York City, where she coincidentally met Finnick. He was a French business man looking for possible business partners in Wall Street. When he saw Annie walk into a restaurant it was love at first sight, like out of a movie. They kept a long distance relationship for a while, Finnick traveling back and forth. After just a year they were madly in love and Finnick took no time to propose.

However, a few weeks before the wedding, Annie's parents tragically passed away in disastrous car accident. Finnick took off time from work to care for Annie, who was in dark place for months after her parents' passing. After she got the necessary help and felt good enough, she and Finnick got married in a small ceremony back in Panem, and after the wedding, with nothing tying her back, she moved all the way to France with her new husband.

That was two years ago, and Katniss had seen neither of them since, until now.

"I've missed you so much," Annie said.

"Me too," Katniss said once they broke apart.

"Aw, me too," Finnick grinned.

"I've missed you too, you knucklehead,"

Annie scratched her throat, "Katniss, this is Peeta. And Rye,"

She had, for a few minutes, forgotten the real reason she was in France.

She turned around and noticed a blond, stocky man standing there, looking back at her with the bluest and most piercing eyes she'd ever seen, and running his one free hand nervously through his hair. His other hand held tightly the small hand of a boy. More like a small version of him, who was holding a "KATNISS E" sign in his other hand. The boy, unlike his father, was smiling widely at her.

She recognized Peeta from the handful of Skype sessions they'd had to make sure the other was who they said to be. However, it was the first time she met Rye. The boy and his father were two water drops.

"Um," she gulped. "Hi. Uh, bonjour,"

The man, Peeta; who didn't look much older than her, scooped up the boy, Rye, in his arms and between the both of them enveloped her in a bear hug. They stood there holding her for a few minutes, and instead of hugging them back her brain only registered the strong manly smell, combined with a strong scent of cinnamon and dill.

When they let her go, both the boys in front of her were smiling. "Cou cou, Katniss," Rye giggled.

Her lips tugged up at the boy's enthusiasm. "Ça va?"

"Oui, ça va très bien. Bienvenue! Nous sommes très heureux parce-que tu es ici avec nous," this time it was Peeta who answered. Welcome! We're so happy because you're here with us. He was full on smiling now.

"Vous voulez manger le déjeuner? Si tu n'es pas très fatiguée, Katniss. " Her brain brushed the cobwebs of the basic French she'd learned while in school. Do you guys want to eat lunch? If you're not too tired, Katniss.

"Le déjeuner? Il est 10h," Lunch? It's 10:00 am.Finnick nagged.

"Oui, je veux," yes, I want to.

Finnick and Annie rode with Peeta and his son to the airport, so they all climbed in Peeta's SUV after he and Finnick stuffed her bags in the trunk. Finnick sat with Peeta in the front, while Annie rode with Katniss in the back, Rye in between them.

"Comment a été ton vol?" how was your flight? Peeta asked.

"Eh, bien, long," She shrugged. Fine.

"You okay?" Annie mouthed at her and took her hand.

"Yeah," she squeezed her hand back.

"I have a ton of toys at home; do you want to play once we get back?" Rye asked.

"You speak English?" her eyes widened. He was 5 years old, how did he speak English so well?

"Yeah," he giggled. "Daddy does too,"

Peeta scratched his throat and looked at her through the review mirror. "I was going to tell you," he said with a thick accent, "but Annie and Finnick suggested we spoke French, so you could get used to the language."

"And now you blew it man," Finnick huffed.

"No, no, it's fine. I really should practice it. I mean, it's France. Thank you though,"

Her new home would be located in a small town 35 minutes away from Paris called Montesson, where Annie and Finnick also lived. Annie had tried to fill her in as much as she could with what to expect when living in a small French village, but seeing it was completely different. It was crazy to think about it; she, a small town girl who'd never even left Panem, now living in France. When Annie moved away she and Katniss talked a lot, and Annie confessed how lonely she felt at the time, even with Finnick trying to make her feel at ease it was never the same. A new culture and a different kind of people it took some time to adjust to. Katniss was thankful that at least she had Annie to help her through the homesickness. If anyone knew exactly what she was feeling that would be Annie.

Rye babbled the first 20 minutes of the ride to Peeta's bakery and held her hand the whole time. Peeta looked on back from time to time through the mirror, and when she caught him looking he gave her a smile that went all the way to his eyes. She was tired, but Rye's talk kept her alert, switching from English to French and vice versa. She chimed in from time to time when he asked her something or to ask him something, but otherwise remained silent, as did everyone else in the car. She was going to be spending the majority of her time with this boy, it was important they started developing a good connection from day one.

She really tried to focus on what Rye was saying, but her mind kept drifting away from time to time. She didn't know whether it was the weariness or the broken heartedness, but she felt as if everything was happening on slow motion around her. She took a look at the window next to her and let herself admire the beauty of the French countryside. She knew France was said to be beautiful, but she had never expected such sights, large green hills, baby blue skies, nature all around her.

She was so engrossed by the view and her thoughts she didn't notice Finnick repeating her name. "Katniss?"

"Huh?"

Rye giggled at her.

"J'ai dit," Finnick said. "Qu'est-ce tu penses de notre pays jusqu'ici?" What do you think of our country so far?

"Um, très beau," Very beautiful.

They all grinned at her.

They chatted a little during the rest of the ride, mostly in French, but Peeta sometimes took a look at her confused face and spoke in English so she wouldn't feel so lost.

Annie had told her several times on the phone that Peeta was an absolute sweetheart, a real life teddy bear, and Katniss could see what she meant. He was always giving her looks through the review mirror and gave her kind smiles, while also trying to include her in the conversation and encouraged her to speak whether in English or French, however she felt most comfortable in. He was already being so nice and she'd only met the man less than an hour ago.

At some point when she did not notice, Rye tired of the adult chat and settled to sleep with his head on her lap while still holding her hand. She ran her fingers through the soft gold baby hair strands and tuned out the rest of her company's conversation. Her eyes were closing on their own command when too soon she felt the car slow down until it stopped completely in front of a small wooden business. Had it been 35 minutes already? She suppressed a yawn.

"Rye? We're here, wake up," she shook him softly. Finnick and Annie had already abandoned the car, but Peeta remained in his seat, watching her.

It took a few more moments of soft shaking before Rye opened his eyes and gave her a toothy grin. He sat up excitedly and tugged her towards the door and out of the car, which made Peeta finally exit the car as well, with Katniss following closely behind.

As soon as she was out she noticed the medium sized store in front of her, all dark wood and black and white signs which read in golden letters Boulangerie et Pâtisserie Mellark. The establishment felt homey and comfortable and very familiar. The display of cakes and pastries in the front of the shop gave it a sophisticated look and its beauty and delicateness made her want to go inside and grab one right that instant. Up until that moment she hadn't noticed how hungry she was. She was too nervous to eat before she left home, and on the plane they only gave her a cold sandwich which nearly cracked her tooth when she bit into it. But Peeta's boulangerie certainly didn't look like it served tooth-cracking bread.

During one of hers and Peeta's Skype sessions he briefly mentioned he was the owner of a small business, and the boulanger himself. He didn't elaborate much about his business, was in fact very shy about it, but Annie later told her that he was doing very good, on his way to open another two stores in the region of Ile-de-France, close enough to his main bakery and home, just a few minutes away.

An older version of Peeta with greyer hair, rounded stomach and smile lines around his eyes walked out the store and embraced her tightly as if he'd known her his whole life. She froze.

Peeta coughed. "Katniss, il est mon père, Jean,"

"Katniss! Peeta m'a dit beaucoup de toi. Vient, vient dans le magasin. Tu dois avoir faim après ton vol,"

The man gave her no chance to talk and tugged her inside excitedly, Finnick, Annie and Rye already walking through the door and sitting on a booth. She threw Peeta a nervous look but he only shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her. "Yeah, sorry, my dad gets very excited,"

Peeta's father sat her next to Rye and he said something more to her before he whisked away to a door in the back which she supposed was the kitchen. She noticed most tables and booths were occupied and there was a long line of people that wanted to order. The vitrines were loaded with cakes, bread and unimaginable beautiful pastries.

"Um, I'm sorry if he made you uncomfortable, he's just very friendly." Peeta explained. "He doesn't speak English by the way,"

"It's fine," she gave a tight lipped smile.

"Anything you would like to eat?"

"Katniss, you have to try the cheese buns. They're my favorite," Rye suggested.

"I'll have a cheese bun then," she told Peeta who flashed her yet another charming smile and followed his father through the same door he'd just disappeared. She noticed he'd smile a lot. She wondered if all French were as warm as Peeta and his father or if it only was a Mellark thing.

"So, Rye," she said. "I hear you're already in preschool and that you love to color,"

He bobbed his head up and down furiously. "Oui! I'm already this big," he held up five fingers.

She raised her eyebrows exaggeratedly. "Wow, that is very big. You're nearly as old as me,"

"How old are you?"

"21."

"Katniss! I'm not as old as you, you're so much older," he giggled.

She held a hand to her chest as if in pain, "I know, I'm on my way to becoming a grandma," Rye's giggles turned into a full laugh.

He kept chatting her ear off about his favorite color, red, his favorite stuffed animal, a bear called étreintes, his favorite classmate called Antoine, and how he absolutely loved coming to the boulangerie to help out his dad and granddad, until, little time after, Peeta returned with a tray overloaded with all kinds of baked goods which he set on the table. Everything smelled heavenly.

"Okay son, let Katniss chose first,"

"Yeah, ladies first," Rye grinned at her. God, that kid could make anyone love him with those big eyes and charm. She was already starting to warm up to him.

The plates contained several kinds of bread and pastries, which she knew nothing about. All she had ever tasted in Panem was regular bread. They couldn't afford much else. But here on this table she had endless possibilities, and she couldn't decide.

"Uh, I guess I'll go with Rye's suggestion."

"Good choice mademoiselle," Peeta smiled and handed her a plate with golden buns that oozed melted cheese. It was a sight for sore eyes.

When she bit into the bun it was nothing like she'd ever tasted before. The combination of buttery bread with salty cheese was pure perfection, and she understood why the people endured long lines to acquire the Mellark treats. She had a hard time holding a moan in, but she couldn't keep the satisfied groan to herself. Peeta looked pleased and suddenly sported a light blush.

"Good?"

"More than good." She assured.

He pulled an empty chair and sat at the end of the table while Finnick, Annie and Rye took their own plates and wasted no time in biting into their pastries.

"Seriously man, you can't keep bringing me here," Finnick groaned around his éclair. "You're going to make me fat."

"I don't know about that. You're already looking a little chubby," Annie teased and the whole table laughed. Finnick looked a little wounded and Annie kissed his cheek.

She finished her bun in record time and debated whether or not she should grab another one. She didn't want Peeta to think she was a bottomless barrel. He saw her hesitation though, and quickly served another one on her plate.

"Mange, s'il te plait," Eat, please. "You would offend me if you didn't," she didn't need to be told twice.

Peeta's father emerged from the back door carrying a tray with several cups that emanated hot fumes.

"Chocolat chaud pour le nouveau membre de notre famille," he laughed.

"Merci, monsieur Mellark,"

"Jean, s'il te plait,"

The table went quiet while everyone ate, but eventually they finished their meal and Peeta and his dad started asking her about her life back in Panem. It was refreshing to see they were interested to learn about her culture. At some point she even saw Peeta timidly scribbling down some notes on a small notebook.

They didn't remain too long after that. Peeta's father let her go with a promise to return very soon, and with a thermos full of hot chocolate and a paper bag full of cheese buns.

They rode around town for a while to show Katniss her new home while explaining the most important places she'd be to, and every turn Peeta took revealed yet another more beautiful sight. It was something out of a magazine.

They dropped Finnick and Annie off at their place a little before noon and took off to Peeta's house. Annie hugged her for a few minutes before finally letting her go, promising she'd visit her the day after.

The ride to Peeta's place didn't take long, maybe 15 minutes. It was a relief for Katniss to know she'd have Annie within such a short distance.

Peeta pulled up in the garage of a two-story cream colored house with red window frames and a small yard covered in green grass up front. It looked cozy.

Rye was practically bouncing in his seat and barely waited for Peeta to park the car before he ran out and pulled her outside by her hand. The street was silent, just some birds chirping in the distance. The cold wind blew and made her wrap her jacket tighter around herself. It was the first week of October, and winter was starting to kick in. Thankfully, it wasn't full in on frozen hell yet, so she still had some time to grow used to it. They had winter in Panem, but they weren't as bad as in Europe. She'd heard winter in France was particularly brutal.

She moved to the trunk and tried to help Peeta with her luggage, but he insisted he could do it on his own. He only handed her her carry-on and managed to handle both her bags up to the front wooden door. He quickly unlocked it and welcomed her in.

Her first thought was that the house was much cleaner and tidier than she expected, for a man and a boy living there. The floor was dark wood, and the furniture was light and nicely arranged. What surprised her the most was that there was art everywhere, hanging from every wall. Each piece contained colorful and alive combinations of colors and patterns that gave the house personality, along with dozens of portraits of Peeta and Rye, Peeta's dad and a woman she assumed was his mother, Rye with Finnick and Annie, Peeta with two men who resembled him, his brothers, most likely, Rye as a baby, but no pictures of Rye's mother. The house was manly, yet beautiful and cozy. The fireplace was on and she was thankful for the extra warmth.

In front of the fireplace hung a big sign with two drawings of two flags, one from the US and the other one from France. The sign read Welcome, Katniss! And lower it said from Rye and Peeta, in a child's handwriting.

"Bienvenue à ta nouveau maison," Welcome to your new house. She smiled a little.

For some reason she found he made it easy for her to smile around them.

"Let me show you your room and then we'll give you a tour around the house," he rolled her suitcases away with her and Rye following closely behind. Rye, much like his father, insisted on taking her carry-on. It was heavy, and he wobbled a little while walking, but he still carried the bag all the way to her room on the far right side of the house.

"This is it," Peeta opened a white wooden.

Her room was simple yet feminine. Not very big, all white walls and a double bed in the middle of the room. She had a small closet, a desk and a vanity. She noticed Peeta had set a beautiful small orchid on the desk. Next to the window was another door.

"Your own bathroom," Peeta explained. "I know it's not much, but we thought you might like to decorate it yourself,"

"It's beautiful. Thank you," Rye and Peeta gave her identical grins.

"We're really happy to have you with us, I mean it."

"I'm happy to be here,"

"Katniss, come see my room!" Rye tugged her away.

"Rye, let's leave Katniss some time to herself so she can unpack,"

"No, no, it's fine." She assured. "I can do that later."

At her insistence that she wasn't completely exhausted (which wasn't exactly true) they gave her a tour of the house. The first floor held her room, the living room, a half bath, the backyard and the kitchen, which made her open her mouth like a fish. She'd expected the kitchen to be functional, Peeta being a baker and all, but it was absolutely beautiful. All light wood and large islands and all kinds of modern electronics.

The second floor held Peeta and Rye's rooms, another bathroom and Peeta's personal office.

Rye sat her on his desk chair and looked around for his toys and crayons, not knowing what to show her first. Peeta remained with them for a while, but eventually retired to his office to deal with some work related things. She and Rye played with his action figures and later they colored, all the while chatting and joking together. She was relieved Rye seemed to be as quiet and happy as Annie had promised, and that they seemed to be getting along just fine, otherwise she wouldn't know what to do.

She was distracted telling Rye a story about when she was younger and had to climb a tree to get away from a wild bear that made her spent the night on the tree, she didn't notice Peeta watching them from the doorway.

"I thought you might like the WiFi password, to let your loved ones know you got here safely and assure them I'm not a psycho," he grinned and she felt her cheeks heat up. She was going to kill Annie. He had a point though. She'd forgotten about texting her friends.

"Sure, thanks," she quickly logged in and her phone instantly beeped with new notifications from WhatsApp.

Johanna: Are you alive?

Gale: ?

Johanna: Brainless?

Thom: Got there yet?

She quickly texted them and assured them she was fine, still sad and almost ready to die from exhaustion, but she wanted to try and remain awake until at least 7 pm so she wouldn't be feeling so jetlagged.

It was already time for Rye's bath, so she instantly offered herself to do it.

"Katniss, you don't have to," Peeta interjected. "You just got here,"

"I want to. It's my job,"

Peeta filled the tub for her and she led Rye to the bathroom.

After the tub was warm enough she put him in his bubble bath and sat next to the tub. After she washed his head and body they played around with his toys and blew bubbles together until the water turned cold and their fingers started wrinkling like raisins.

"Look!" he showed her his fingertips. "Now we're both really old."

She quickly got him out, wrapping him in a fuzzy towel and patting him dry. She carried him to his room, still in a towel, and sat him on the bed while she looked around his closet for his clothes. She dressed him in some sweats and a t-shirt, since he'd be taking his nap soon.

They colored some more until Peeta called them down for lunch. Since none of them were really hungry because of Peeta's bakery treats, they only slurped down some chicken noodle soup. After lunch Rye took his nap, but he wanted Katniss to be the one to tuck him in. Peeta pretended to be hurt at that statement, but she could see he was actually thriving at how much Rye wanted to be around Katniss already.

Since Rye was a little restless she tucked him in and sang a song her father had taught her and that she'd always sing to her sister when she had trouble sleeping. It took nearly no time for him to be out like a light, his stuffed animal tightly between his arms. Peeta coughed his throat from the doorway behind her and motioned for her to go down the stairs with him. She noticed he was blushing.

She followed him to the kitchen and sat at the table in front of him.

"I thought right now would be a good time for us to discuss the basics," Peeta explained. "Unless you're too tired, because if you are I totally understand. We can do it later,"

"No, now is a good time," better get it out of the way, she guessed.

"Oh, well, great. I know I've already said it, but I really appreciate that you're here. Since Rye's mother left things have been… a little more complicated." He ran his hand through his golden locks. "She's American."

"Huh?"

"Rye's mother, my ex, she's American. That's why I speak English so well, and Rye too." He confessed. "I took some Basic English in school, but French never came off as easy to Cashmere, so I had to learn. And Rye is taught English at school and here at home so,"

"Oh. That's great,"

Katniss didn't know much about Peeta or his ex-wife. Annie had briefly filled her in: they met in college there in France, they had an on-off relationship most of the time, and not too long after that she got pregnant, both only 19 years old. Peeta tried to do the honorable thing: he put a ring on her finger and dropped out of college, started working at his parents' bakery, which he inherited at 21, and rented a small studio apartment. However, not too long after Rye was born Cashmere began to evade her responsibilities as a mother and a wife. They separated when Rye just turned two, but she still visited him and took him to her place every once in a while, but when the divorce was finalized, just eight months earlier, she completely erased herself from her son's life. Peeta hadn't heard from her just as the ink dried on the divorce papers, or so Annie said. Rye and Peeta had moved to their current house as soon as the divorce was done, trying to get a fresh start.

"Well, uh, let's get down to business, I guess. So you already know what you'll be doing throughout the day, but let's check again."

He reached on the other side of the table for a folder with many documents inside. All her Au Pair information, she imagined. He pulled out a weekly schedule with Rye's activities. Back in Panem he'd already emailed her the same schedule so she could study it and get familiarized with it. She had it printed and stuffed in her backpack.

Peeta noticed her staring. "I'm sorry," he sighed. "I know it's so formal, and I regularly don't tend to do things like this, I've just… never hired an Au Pair before. I don't really know what to do. Honestly, if Annie hadn't recommended you so highly I probably would have never thought about getting a nanny,"

"It's fine," she assured. "I've never done this before either, being an Au Pair, I mean,"

"Annie said you get along nicely with kids. Practically raised your younger sister on your own,"

"Yes." She said stiffly and didn't elaborate much further.

"Well, uh, Rye seems so smitten with you already. I know you've just met, but he usually doesn't warm up to anyone so quickly. Maybe it's because we've been expecting you for so long. It's crazy to finally have you here," he chuckled.

When Annie mentioned she might have gotten Katniss a new job opportunity in France as a full-time nanny, she thought about it for a while. She never envisioned herself working as a nanny for a living. She wanted to do bigger things, but didn't exactly know what. She just knew she couldn't spend the rest of her life in Panem. The memories of her family and what could've been were suffocating her. Sure, she had her friends, and her whole life was tied to that place, but there was really nothing else holding her back. So when Annie gave a way out, she knew she'd be a fool not to take it.

Annie mentioned Finnick's friend, a recently divorced father of a 5-year-old who didn't dedicate enough time to his son or his business, because he was so busy trying to manage the time to attend both. Annie set up the whole thing and encouraged them both to take a risk. That was in July.

It was a long and arduous process. Katniss had to sign up in the official Au Pair website and contact Peeta through his profile. They had several chats and Skype sessions where they discussed the most important matters of the arrangement, like schedules, work, living commodities and payment. Peeta would pay for everything: her meals, living arrangements, transportation and health insurance, but she would have to cover her own plane ticket to France, because the official Au Pair in France contract stated so. In order to purchase her ticket she had to work like crazy for 3 months, and had to wait for her work VISA, which took almost 3 months.

By the time all the documentation was finally in order it was already the first week of October. She purchased the cheapest ticket she could find and left Panem less than a week after she got her VISA.

"I know what you mean. I still can't believe I'm here," she agreed. "And Rye, well, he seems like a good kid. He's so nice,"

"He is a good kid, I promise, he's really not trouble at all. I just, well," he rubbed his eyes. "I'm not exactly sure how he's taken his mother leaving. Sometimes he can get a little stubborn or distant, but the psychologist assured me it was normal, considering what he's been through."

Katniss wasn't surprised to hear Peeta had taken Rye to a specialist. Most parents did that when the child suffered a loss, to help them deal with the trauma and all that. To her it was all bullshit though. That trauma stayed with you forever, she knew it better than anyone.

She didn't voice out her thoughts, of course. "Oh, well, I'm sure we'll be fine."

Peeta smiled at her encouragingly, "I have no doubt that you will,"

Peeta worked baker hours, so he had to be at the bakery by 4:30 am every day. From now on, it was Katniss's responsibility to get Rye ready and take him to school every morning at 7:30. Peeta would leave them their breakfast done, so she all she had to do was to get Rye up and dressed. After dropping Rye off she'd go to the French lessons the Au Pair program assigned her to, so she'd have class from 8:30 to 10:30, and after she'd help Peeta out at the boulangerie from 11:30 to 4:30 pm, when she had to leave and pick up Rye from school. She and Rye would be left to their own devices until 9 pm, his bedtime, and during that period of 4 hours she'd have to get him bathed and fed. The weekends would be all hers; she could stay in or go out wherever she wanted to as long as Peeta didn't need her to babysit.

She got to France on a Sunday, so her new routine would be starting the following day.

"Your main responsibility is Rye, of course, but uh, I thought you could also help me around the house. Like doing dishes, or sweeping around the house. I usually cook meals, and the laundry we can do it together on the weekends." He said nervously. "I know it seems a lot," he apologized.

"I like keeping myself busy,"

"That's good to hear." He smiled softly. "So, you must have noticed that during the week you'll be running from here to there, so I thought this would be very useful," he handed her a pair of keys.

"The keys to the SUV?" she choked out.

"Come," she followed him out through the front door and next to his car. He pulled a remote out of his jeans and pressed a button and the garage door started rolling upwards, revealing a small, silver Nissan.

"Wow," she managed to say.

"I bought it off in a sale and have been fixing it since you told me you'd be joining us. It's not the newest car, but it should serve its purpose,"

"Thanks, it's really cool."

She'd never had a car. When she was younger her dad had an old double cabin pickup truck, which she had to sell a few months after he died to make ends meet, so she never got to drive the thing. She knew how to drive, got her driver's license when she turned 17, and would, sometimes after a party, drive her friends home in Thom's car when he got too wasted and couldn't do it himself. But she had never had a car all to her own. Peeta had clearly given it to her so she could fulfill her nanny duties more easily, but still.

"I'm glad you like it," he smiled widely and his eyes shone.

They stood there staring intently at each other and not speaking for a while until Peeta broke eye contact.

"Uh, I'll let you unpack. You're free to take a bath, if you want. If you need anything just yell, I'll be in my office," and he sprang away and inside the house before she could say thank you.

She decided to follow his advice and went to her room, where she took a well-deserved and refreshing shower. After she got out she put on some sweat pants, a large t-shirt and braided her wet hair and started unpacking her belongings and emptying them inside her new closet.

She took nearly an hour, and it surprised her and saddened her how her whole life, previously stuffed in two suitcases, had taken just one hour to unpack.

If she'd been feeling exhausted earlier, right now she was about ready to drop dead. Just as she contemplated the thought that she wouldn't mind so much being jetlagged if that meant taking a powering nap right that instant, a knock resonated through her room.

"Katniss?" a little voice said. Rye. Seemed he'd already woken up from his nap.

"I'll be right there," she walked to the door and pulled it open. "Hi."

"Do you want to watch a movie with me?" he looked up at her imploringly. He had his father's same deep, blue eyes.

"Oui," she consented. "Allez."

They went to Rye's room and she helped him set up the movie in the DVD player. He wanted to see Big Hero 6.

"Tu veux pop-corn?" she suggested, to which he nodded excitedly.

She crossed the hall and stood in front of Peeta's office, her hand raised ready to knock but not sure whether she should or not. The door was locked, but she heard him quickly speaking in French, on the phone she imagined. She couldn't exactly catch what he was saying, but she could denote from his tone he didn't sound happy.

"Rye, tu sais où est le pop-corn?" Do you know where the popcorn is?

"Oui," Rye affirmed and sprang out of the room. She followed him down the stairs and inside the kitchen, where he already stood in front of the pantry.

"Là," he pointed at the highest shelf. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the shelf and blindly felt around for the plastic rectangular package. Her fingers finally reached the thing and she gave a triumphing aha!

Katniss unwrapped the package and stuffed it in the microwave, setting the timer to 3 minutes. She stood in front of the microwave, seeing the popcorn pop, Rye dutifully by her side. Once the microwave beeped, signaling their snack was ready; she asked Rye where to find a bowl. He pointed at another shelf near her head and she reached inside. They had several large bowls, but she chose a white and blue Ice Age 4 big bowl, just because she liked that movie.

Very carefully she extracted the popcorn from inside the microwave and tugged the lids open, seeing the heat fume out along with the delicious smell of buttery popcorn. She poured the whole bag into the bowl and threw the bag away. Rye wasted no time in grabbing the bowl himself and sprinting up the stairs, Katniss following closely behind.

Peeta's door was still closed, but she couldn't hear him talking anymore. She debated whether she should invite him to join their movie, but she figured he'd hired her to entertain Rye without the need of him being present. She retreated quietly to Rye's room and sat next to him on the bed while he clicked Play on the remote. Rye settled next to her, the bowl of popcorn in between them.

By the time Hiro and the gang found out Dr. Callaghan was, in fact, the bad guy, Katniss and Rye had already finished the whole bowl of popcorn. It was a good thing she had already seen this movie in her native language, because otherwise she wouldn't understand shit. Rye had left the audio in French and she was too proud to change it to English. She wanted to know whether she could understand the dialogues in French, she needed to learn, after all, but so far she'd been having little to no progress. It was frustrating.

Between the complication of the language and how tired she was feeling, she noticed her eyes closing on their own, but she didn't have the energy to open them again. Rye was silent next to her, the movie on the background, and the bed was just so comfy. She could stay there forever…

"Katniss," Rye shook her slightly and her eyes sprang open. "You're going to miss the best part!"

The movie was almost ending. Hiro and Baymax were inside the vortex, rescuing Callaghan's daughter, and Hiro kept insisting Baymax he wouldn't leave him behind. Her ears registered the sound of a door opening in the distance, and then loud footsteps down the hall until they stopped in front of Rye's room. Peeta took a look at her and Rye strewn across the bed and smiled.

"Père, allez regarder le film," Rye patted the spot next to him on the bed and Peeta obeyed.

The three of them sat in silence until the credits started rolling.

"Katniss," Peeta started. "Annie m'a dit que tu adore la nature," Annie told me you love nature, "J'ai pensé que nous pouvons aller en une promenade autour le parc," I thought we could go for a walk around the park. Peeta spoke slowly and pronounced every syllable so she could understand.

"Oui, c'est bien,"

Peeta insisted he'd change Rye into appropriate winter clothes while she went and got ready. She didn't have much winter clothes herself, so she pulled together what little she could. A sweater and a jacket, jeans, and closed off boots. She met Peeta and Rye at the front door and together the three of them parted.

They walked over to a park about 5 minutes away from the house. Walking by, she detailed everything more perfectly than while driving. The leaves were changing colors, most of them already red and orange, and falling off the trees. She and Peeta walked side by side, Rye a few steps in front of them. The wind was blowing colder and harder than it'd been that morning. She shivered and puller her jacket tighter around herself. Peeta noticed.

"You know, Cashmere, she uh, she owned a lot of clothes. She left many things in our closet when she left. I cleared it out and put it all in a bag, for when she came to get it. Except now, I don't think she's coming back to get it," he shrugged and didn't meet her eyes. "There's many winter stuff in there. It's yours if you want it,"

"Uh,"

"You don't have to take it if you don't want to or if you already have enough clothing, I just thought that since you're not used to this weather, no layers could ever be enough,"

She wasn't sure how she felt about accepting hand me downs from her boss. More like hand me downs from her boss's ex-wife. She didn't like taking charity from anyone, period. But Peeta had a point. She didn't come fully prepared to deal with France's winter, and even though Peeta would pay her a good wage, winter clothing was very expensive, so she bit her tongue and swallowed her pride.

"No, yeah, you're right. I get really cold, so the more the merrier. Thank you,"

"You're welcome,"

They walked in silence, Rye still ahead.

At one point they took a turn and she heard water running loudly. "Is that water?" she asked out loud.

Peeta grinned, "Oui, this is what I wanted to show you most. My favorite part of this park,"

The thick trees started disappearing and off the side a small stream appeared, coming from the opposite direction from where they came from. The more they walked it became in a full length river.

"Is that…" Katniss asked in awe.

"The Seine," Peeta nodded and Rye stopped next to them, he spread his arms and grinned adorably at Katniss.

"Surprise!"

"I, uh, what?" she stuttered.

"Annie said you loved trees and stuff and you had a big forest back in your home, so we thought we should show you this place first because it's so pretty and whenever you feel lonely you can come here and maybe you won't feel so lonely anymore because it reminds you of home?" Rye babbled, his accent thickening due to the length of his words.

"I guess we thought this would be the first place we had to take you because…" Peeta ran his hands through his hair. "Well, we just thought this might make you think of France as your home, too."

She looked at the two boys, identically standing side by side looking back at her. No one could ever replace her real family, the one she once had, but she guessed she could do much worse than Rye and Peeta.

She kneeled in front of Rye, "Thank you. It means a lot to me," and pulled him in a hug.

Rye seemed surprised by the show of affection, but he didn't take long to weave his little arms around her neck and hold her tight. She looked over Rye's shoulder and Peeta was smiling at them both.

"Thank you," she mouthed. He smiled brightly.

Rye let go of her hug, but when they resumed walking, right by the Seine, he walked in between Peeta and her, each one of his hands holding Katniss's and the other holding Peeta's.

They remained in the park for another hour, walking, barely talking. By the time they decided to leave it was almost 6 pm, and the shades of the sky were turning into softer hues.

"Daddy look," Rye pointed at the sky. "It's your favorite,"

"C'est vrai," Peeta ruffled his son's hair. "Orange." He explained to Katniss.

"Orange is your favorite color?"

"Well, not every orange. See that shade?" he also pointed above. Pastel shades of orange and pink tinged the sky.

"That is my favorite shade,"

She couldn't deny that orange was a breathtaking shade. She'd never seen an orange so beautiful.

"What about yours?" she raised her brow. "Your favorite color, I mean,"

"Wow, right into the deep stuff." Peeta chuckled. "Green."

"Mine is blue!" Rye chirped from between them and Katniss startled.

Together they walked home. Even though it was a 5 minute walk, to Katniss it felt so much longer. Night was creeping in and the temperature dropped considerably, the cold stabbing her through her thin sweater and jacket.

"Aie," Peeta said, shrugging off his own jacket, leaving him only in a sweater.

"Peeta, no," she protested, but he was already dropping it over her shoulders. The item instantly proportioned an extra sense of warmth, she almost sighed in content. Her nostrils also distinguished cinnamon, the smell coming from the jacket.

"You're going to freeze," she said.

"Nah," he shrugged. "I'm used to this weather. Besides, the house's only a couple of minutes away, I think I'll live." He joked.

"Katniss if you think this is cold just wait until Christmas!" Rye giggled. Oh hell. She needed to do some serious winter clothing shopping or ask Peeta right away for the clothes he'd offered; otherwise she'd be frozen to death by December.

Thankfully, they made it to the house, which was warm and cozy. Katniss stood in front of the fireplace and let the heat wash over her. Rye stood next to her and gave her a bear hug.

"Dad says hugs make people warm," he explained.

"Your dad's right," she shrugged off Peeta's jacket and then hers. "I feel so much better now, thanks to you." He seemed pleased at that, so he buzzed away to the kitchen, where Peeta was going through his phone.

Katniss sheepishly handed him his jacket back. "Thank you,"

"It's no problem," he shook his head and looked at her, eyes shiny. "I'll go get that bag of clothes I told you about right after I make this call. I was thinking about ordering pizza, you agree Rye?"

Rye nodded happily, "Oui, oui!"

"Katniss, what do you like your pizza with?"

"Oh, um, I'll have whatever you guys are having,"

Peeta raised a brow, "No special requests?"

"Sausage and pepperoni, maybe?" Peeta grinned.

"You got it,"

After Peeta made the call they were informed their delivery would arrive in 20 to 30 minutes. Katniss decided to help Rye dress him for bed. Thankfully, he agreed without complaint.

"I want my Spiderman pajamas!" Rye said from the bed, legs swinging back and forth.

"Sure thing…" she trailed off as she ransacked through the boy's closet and drawers, looking for his pj's drawer.

She finally found the drawer with his pj's, but finding the pajamas Rye specifically asked for was trickier. When she finally found the Spiderman one, Rye complained.

"No, Katniss, my other Spiderman pj's," Katniss sighed.

She finally found the one he was looking for, a large onesie that went from head to foot, all Spiderman getup. She helped him change into the pajamas, although he told her he could do it on his own, and Rye seemed happy.

As she finished getting him dressed the doorbell rang and Peeta called from downstairs, "Pizza's here!"

Rye flew down the stairs in a blur of excitement, Katniss following closely behind. Peeta had already set up the table, so they sat down while Peeta paid the delivery guy.

"Pepperoni and sausage per Katniss's request," Peeta presented the pizza and set it on the table, serving each a slice, until none of the meal was left. Peeta washed the dishes, Rye dried and she put them away, Peeta directing where everything went.

After they finished eating, Katniss helped Rye brush his teeth and sat with him in, once again coloring. She noticed he really liked to color. Around his room there were several pictures framed, and she noticed several pencil cases on his desk earlier. Also the fridge was overflowing with childish drawings.

Rye's bedtime was at 9 pm, but she had hoped the promenade through the park and dressing him in his pajamas early would have made him go to sleep earlier, but he was as awake as he could be and she was falling asleep on the table. It was barely 7:30.

"I can put him to bed you know," Peeta said from behind her. "You've barely slept at all, and you're five hours ahead of schedule,"

She hadn't slept at all since she'd left Panem the day before, and she was beyond exhausted, but it was her first day on the job. She couldn't retire to her bedroom when the kid still wasn't in bed.

Peeta saw her hesitating. "Katniss, I will not think any less of you if you go to sleep right now. Trust me; I can handle it from here. Besides, tomorrow starts your new routine, might as well rest as much as you can. Please, go,"

"Fine," she conceded. "Good night."

Rye gave her a hug. "Good night, Katniss. We're going to have so much fun tomorrow,"

"I know so too, Rye," she kissed his cheek and he giggled.

"Sweet dreams," Peeta said.

"You too," she retired to her bedroom. She quickly changed her clothes into pajamas, brushed her teeth and wasted no time in slipping under the covers. She checked her phone and briefly answered the texts from her friends, promising she'd check with them again tomorrow. She set up the alarm to ring at 6:00 am, just in case. She'd always been an early riser, but she was so tired she wasn't sure she could wake up without an alarm, plus the jetlag.

She was out as soon as she closed her eyes.

As usual, her dreams were plagued with memories, her parents and sister, her home back in Panem, her friends, but instead of terrifying her, like they normally did, they just made her sad, even while asleep.

The alarm clock rang way too soon; it read 6:30 on the dot. She'd slept nearly 12 hours, but to her body it was still 1:30 am in Panem. The annoying thrill resonated far away at first, and then loudly screeched next to her ear, until the sound became to unbearable, she had to reach around and pause the devil thing. She sighed in content once the sound stopped and her eyes itched to stay closed, but her mind knew she had to get up. She was still feeling sad from her dreams, but she decided to push the sadness down, at least for a while, and start off the week the best she could.

She jumped out of the bed and quickly folded the sheets. She took a quick shower and dressed as fast as she could so she could go and get Rye ready. She was braiding her wet hair on the way up the stairs when she heard sounds coming from the kitchen. From the threshold she was surprised to see Peeta moving around in the kitchen, cooking something on the stove.

"Peeta?"

He jumped at the sound of her voice, clutching a hand to his chest, "Mon Dieu, Katniss, you scared me. You're so quiet,"

She held back a snort at his startled face. "Yeah, so I've been told. Bonjour," she added.

"Bonjour à toi, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah." Her hands played nervously with the end of her braid. Her eyes focused on the table, where he had already set up breakfast. He had served French toast, eggs, and was now serving crêpes, along with several cereal boxes and cartons of milk. She wasn't used to seeing so much food in just one meal. She raised her brows, looking from the table to Peeta.

"Uh, I wasn't sure what you would like," he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Everything looks delicious. I'm surprised to see you still here. Thought you'd be at work by now," she confessed.

"I usually would be," he admitted. "But today's your first day, officially. I wanted to be around to show you Rye's school and in case you had any questions or something,"

"Oh. Merci," she stuttered. "I'm going to wake Rye up," she pointed at the stairs and started backing away.

"That's not necessary-" Peeta started but stopped when they heard small feet running down the stairs. Katniss was shocked to see Rye already dressed for school, bag in hand.

"Bonjour, Katniss!" he gave her a hug.

"Bonjour…" he broke apart and sat at the table, quickly reaching for a cereal box.

She poured his cereal and milk for him and a glass of orange juice and he happily dug in.

"You woke him up?" she asked Peeta and he looked sheepishly at her.

"Yeah. We, uh, wanted to surprise you. Besides, Rye can dress on his own, you just need to lay out his clothes for him and wake him, but beyond that he can do everything on his own." Peeta explained.

"Oh,"

Rye patted the seat next to him. "Katniss, come sit and eat next to me," and she obeyed.

She served herself a crêpe and a French toast. Peeta had laid out strawberries to go with the crêpes and she couldn't resist taking some.

"Coffee, Katniss?" Peeta suggested. "I made the choco break," she had no idea what the choco break was, but she imagined it had chocolate in it and that sounded perfect to her. He had several bags of instant coffee next to the coffee maker, each a different format.

"Please," she could barely function in the mornings without a cup of the dark energizer. She, however, noticed Peeta evaded serving coffee in his own cup and instead poured himself tea.

"You don't want coffee?" she asked once he set her cup in front of her. She gave a taste and her eyes closed in pleasure. It was unlike any coffee she'd ever tasted in Panem. She had heard the food in France was surreal, and everything she had tasted so far had tasted beyond her expectations. She held back a moan around the cup.

"I don't drink coffee." Peeta shrugged.

She sputtered, "You're a baker. You have to get up at 4 in the morning. You're telling me you do that without coffee in your system?"

"I never acquired a taste for coffee. Never really liked it,"

"Wow, I admire you," Peeta chuckled. She took a look at all the coffee bag next to the machine. "Why do you have so many bags of coffee then?"

Peeta blushed. "Um, for you,"

"Oh," she squeaked.

"I thought you might like it, I just didn't know which you'd like, so I bought several kinds. Is it good? The choco break,"

"It's amazing," she smiled. "Thank you, really," Peeta grinned back and once again they held a staring contest.

Her Au Pair contract established her host family would have to pay for her basic needs; everything else she wanted to buy would have to go from her own pocket. Technically, Peeta didn't consume coffee in his household, if she wanted coffee she would have to buy it for herself. He didn't have to buy her the coffee, but he still did. Annie was right. Peeta was a real life teddy.

They ate in silence, with the occasional comment from Rye. They picked the dishes together, and Katniss washed them, foregoing Peeta's insistence that he could do it.

"You cooked, I clean," Katniss protested.

Peeta seemed troubled, but he agreed. "Oh, here," he went to the living room and gave her a trunk. "These are the clothes I told you about,"

She looked at the trunk, the zipper barely closing due to the amount of clothes inside. "I thought you said she only left some clothes behind? This seems a lot of clothes to me,"

"Trust me, this is nothing. She's a shopping addict,"

"And you're sure she won't be coming back for these?"

"Katniss, she left eight months ago. If she's not coming back for her son, I highly doubt she'll be coming back for a couple of jackets and sweaters," Peeta said quietly, crudely.

"Well, you never know, some women have their priorities in order," she responded sarcastically. Her eyes widened and she was sure Peeta would be outraged. She was surprised when he laughed loudly.

"Don't I know it," he grinned and looked at the clock. "We better get going," the suitcase was overflowing with clothes, so she dressed in her own jacket and decided she'd later go through the trunk.

Each packed their respective belongings and got in Peeta's car.

"Rye's school is a 15 minute ride; you'll be driving him in the mornings. At first you can use the GPS, and eventually you'll learn the way," Peeta said from behind the wheel.

She watched with rapt attention every turn and street Peeta took, trying to memorize everything at once. Peeta had the radio on, and Rye was singing from the backseat. It was a song in French, and the rhythm sounded familiar, but she couldn't understand the lyrics.

Eventually they got to Rye's school and Peeta got out, unbuckling Rye from his seat. Katniss decided to go out too and follow them to the courtyard where all the kids were arriving.

"Tiens un bon jour, fils," Peeta said and gave Rye a hug.

"Au revoir." he returned the hug and looked at Katniss, brow furrowed. "Katniss, tu vas être à la maison quand je retourne? " Rye asked her.

"Non," she answered. "Je ne vais pas, parce-que je serai ici pour ramasser-toi." She spoke messily, syllables mispronounced. She wanted to personally apologize to the French for butchering their gorgeous language, but Rye seemed to understand her just fine. He grinned at her answer and gave her a hug, which she returned.

Peeta handed Rye to his teacher, and Peeta and her waved goodbye at him from outside the preschool.

They walked in silence back to Peeta's car, and the first five minutes of the ride were also silent.

"Your class is at 8:30, if I'm not mistaken. I thought about taking you there in the métro, so you know how to arrive."

"Oh, okay," more silence.

"You know," Peeta started. "I know what it may look like, me hiring you."

"Uh…" she had to admit it might look suspicious to some. A single man hiring a younger girl as his employee, and Katniss, as an Au Pair, would have never considered working for a single man. She had nothing against single parents, of course, but one might try to take advantage, you never what kind of creep was out there, jut using their kid as an excuse to get some. She only agreed working for Peeta because Annie insisted he was a total gentleman and would never, under any circumstance, make a move on her.

Unless you want to, Annie had winked; honestly, I don't know how that man is still single. He's the whole package.

"People," he scoffed, "My family, think that by hiring you I'm laying out all my son's and home's responsibilities on you, and you might think that too, but it's not the true," she hadn't been expecting that.

"But," she interceded. "Rye is my responsibility,"

"Well, yes, he is, but that's not what I mean. I meant that I still want to make breakfast for him, and give him baths, and take him to the playground, and help him with his homework and pick him from school and all that," Peeta confessed.

"Then what am I here for?"

"Because," he sighed. "Even though I want to do all that, I can't always do it. My business is growing, and so is my son, and as much as I want to dedicate the same amount of time to them both, I can't. I'm only a man,

"I just didn't want him to feel abandoned you know? His mother already left, I don't want him to think I prefer my boulangerie over him. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah,"

"I love my son more than anything. He's my best friend."

She smiled, "I can see that." Rye had drawings all over his room, and most of them were of Peeta and him, or just Peeta, dressed as a baker and later as a superhero. She could already tell his father meant a lot to him.

"What I'm trying to say is, don't be surprised if some days I want to be the one to drive him or pick him up, or bathe him," Peeta shrugged. "It's been just the two of us for a while; having you here is… an adjustment,"

"A good one, I hope,"

Peeta smiled, "Absolutely,"

The rest of the drive was silent, but it wasn't an awkward silence.

When they got back to the house, Peeta parked the car and got out, Katniss following him. She put her backpack around her shoulders while Peeta led the way.

"To get to the French school you have to take the bus and later the train. There's an App on the store that shows the buses and trains schedules. I sent you the link," Peeta explained. "That reminds me, we need to go and get you a line. We can go later, once you get out of class,"

"Sounds good,"

The walk to the bus station was 5 minutes away from the house. The bus would be arriving in 7 minutes, so meanwhile, Peeta showed her the App he'd mentioned from his own phone. "These are the schedules for the train. The train comes every 9 minutes. You have to take the red line, and get off the train at this stop," he pointed at a black dot on the screen.

"Doesn't seem so hard,"

"It's not, once you get the hang of it, you need to be aware of the schedules and the stops. That's about it," he smiled. "Or, you can also drive there. I would've driven you there, but I have a feeling you'll like riding the train. You'll see why,"

"Oh," honestly, she'd feel better taking the train. She didn't feel comfortable driving around in France unless she absolutely had to. "Shouldn't we purchase the tickets?"

Peeta pulled two cards from his pocket. "I already did. This is for the bus, and this one for the train. You can buy one daily, weekly, or monthly. I bought the whole month for you,"

"You thought of everything," she said.

"Not really," he rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't buy my own ticket to get you there." Katniss laughed loudly, and Peeta's eyes crinkled with his own laughter. "I'll be right back," he stood up and went to the machine that sold the tickets.

Peeta took no time in purchasing his tickets, right on time because as he started walking towards her the bus arrived, right on schedule. Everyone quickly stood up, and the bus started filling up. Peeta motioned for her to walk towards the bus. He stood behind her, pushing her forwards, his hand touching slightly her lower back and her breath hitched. They sat together, and she sat next to the window.

"How long until the train station?" she asked.

"10 minutes, but until then, enjoy the view," Peeta smirked and nodded to the window.

The bus didn't take long to start, and she looked out the window. 2 minutes into the ride and she understood why Peeta insisted so much that she looked outside. They sped by the trees, the leaves were red and orange, the mountains in the distance green and tall, and the sky was a bright blue. She turned and looked at Peeta, who was already looking at her. His eyes were the same color of the sky.

"You were right, it is breathtaking," her lips quirked up.

"You have no idea." He responded with a caught breath.

She was tired of awkward silences between them. This man was her boss, they needed to get along. She decided to strike up a conversation. "So, you've lived in France your whole life?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much. We lived up North when I was born, and we moved here when I turned two, when dad purchased the boulangerie. Then I moved to Paris when I was 18, for college, and when Rye was born we moved here," he resumed.

"You've been baking long?"

"Since I could walk, so yeah, a long time," he chuckled, but it lacked humor.

"You didn't want to be a baker?"

"I like baking, it relaxes me. I just would've liked doing it as a hobby, not as my permanent job," he explained.

"What were you in college for?"

"You're going to laugh," he groaned.

"Yeah, the girl with no college education is going to laugh," she rolled her eyes.

Peeta sighed. "I wanted to be an artist. That's what I was studying, art."

Her mind went to all the frames that hanged from the walls in the living room of the house, including Rye's impressive collection of colors and drawings. It made sense now. "The art, on the living room, you did those?"

"Yeah, most of them, at least," he flushed.

"Wow, you're good. Some of your pieces are amazing,"

"Thank you, but it's not such a big deal,"

"No, really-" but she was cut short when the bus stopped.

"This is us," Peeta stood and let her go by first. She had a feeling he didn't like much the topic they'd been discussing, so she decided to let it drop.

They got off the bus and had to walk a block to get to the métro. They had five minutes until the train arrived, so Peeta turned the conversation to her. "What about you? I don't know much beyond what Annie has told me,"

"Well uh, there's really not much to say. I was born in Panem and I lived there my whole life. We didn't have much growing up, so I started working when I was young, really young. I finished high school and didn't really know what to do after, so I started working at a supermarket. I was promoted to manager last year, and then… I came here,"

She shrugged, "Not really much to say,"

"What do you like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know your favorite color is green, and that you like nature. What else do you like? Do you fancy any particular activities?"

"I like hunting, and taking treks through the woods,"

"Hunting? Wow, that's particular. I've never met a girl who liked hunting before,"

"I'm not like most girls," she said simply. "My father started taking me on his hunts when I was little, and it became my favorite thing to do. In the woods I felt a sense of peace like I've never felt anywhere else,"

"I feel the same way when I'm decorating a cake. It relaxes me,"

They kept talking about her life back in Panem and Peeta's life in France while still on the train and later on the street, on the way to the school. Peeta kept the conversation in English, and she was thankful. She'd heard several people talking around them and she couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. The French spoke so quickly!

"Here it is," Peeta said, stopping in front of a white building with a large French flag hoisted all the way up. "Your new school,"

"I feel like you're my dad, dropping me off the first day of school,"

Peeta laughed. "I'll be waiting right here when the bell rings,"

Katniss stopped. "Seriously?"

"Well, I need to show you how to get to the bakery, and we need to get you a phone line,"

"Right. 10:30?"

"I'll be here at 10:30 on the dot," Peeta confirmed.

She looked at Peeta one more time before walking inside the building. He gave her the thumbs up and she gave him a wave.

She had to register at the reception, handing in the inscription and payment included in her contract for the first three months of classes. The lady in the front desk received her documents and kindly directed her to her classroom.

She was surprised at how much it looked like a high school classroom. Desks were organized in rows, and a small board was hung up front. There were two other students there, but she wasn't exactly a social butterfly, so she just said "good morning," when she walked in and sat quietly on her seat, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

There were very little students, only nine, including her, because they believed the teacher could impart a better knowledge and focus better on each student with less people.

Her teacher was a 22 year old redheaded girl named Jacqueline. She made everyone stand up and tell the classroom their name, age, occupation and where they came from. Katniss learned the rest of her classmates came from all across the world; there were five guys, one Spanish, other Brazilian, Italian, Chinese and Greek, and four girls, one Korean, the other Colombian and one British.

Her classmates seemed nice enough, and the class went by quickly. She was so immerse in the cahier of exercises she didn't notice it was already time to go.

"À demain, mes enfants. N'oublie pas ton devoir pour la prochain leçon,"

Everyone picked up their things and left, waving Jacqueline goodbye. When Katniss walked outside, Peeta was already waiting for her. He gave her a wide smile.

"Comment a été?" he asked when she was next to him.

"C'est bien. Have you been waiting for me in here since I went in?" they started walking together.

"What? No!" he answered too quickly. "I walked around, and I went to the bank. I got the information necessary to what you need to open an account. I thought you might need one,"

"Oh, thanks, that was on my to-do list. Maybe I can go tomorrow after class,"

"Sounds good. Your contract says you help me at the bakery after you get out of class, but you don't have to if you don't want to, that was just to formalize the whole thing," Peeta announced.

"Do you need help?"

"Some days are busier than others," he explained.

"Well, I can go whenever you need me to. The only days I won't go will be when I need to run some errands or I'm too busy doing something else,"

"It's a deal,"

Peeta stopped in front of a mobile service. The logo was an orange square with white letters.

"Orange," she read the name of the service. "Seems adequate," Peeta grinned.

They were attended by a guy in an orange shirt, but it wasn't the tone of soft orange Peeta liked. This one was a bright, disgusting orange. She made a face at the color. They talked (Peeta talked) to the guy so he could give her a new phone line. After a while of checking his computed the guy said something to Peeta she couldn't understand, but Peeta didn't seem happy. He argued with the guy in the orange shirt, but the guy kept shaking his head no. Peeta sighed.

"Something wrong?"

"They can't give you the line today," Peeta translated.

"Oh. Why not?"

"Something is wrong with the system or the codes or some shit like that. They can mail you the new line to the house in three days,"

"Three days doesn't seem too long," she shrugged. "I can wait."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine, really. I can survive another three days," Peeta went back to talking with the guy. Finally they handed her some forms to sign. She read as much as she could, her brain trying to piece all the words together. Finally she signed. The guy promised she'd have her new line by Thursday. They even gave her a discount on her first payment for the trouble.

She and Peeta waked out the store together to the métro. Once they got there, their train was just arriving. Katniss noticed that to get to Peeta's bakery from the school she needed to take the green train that went west.

"This," he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, "is going to be your new best friend."

He unfolded the thing. It was the map of the region. "I've already highlighted the trains you need to take to get to your most common destinations, depending on wherever you are." He pointed at the map, "The house, the boulangerie, Rye's school, your school. I just covered the basics. You can add some new routes once you discover them, and eventually I'm sure you won't need the map at all."

She took the map. "Thank you. You're really nice, you know,"

"You were afraid I wasn't?"

"I didn't really know what to expect."

"Neither did I," Peeta said.

The train ride to Peeta's boulangerie took almost half an hour. She followed the route on the map and counted every stop. Finally they got to their destination and had to walk two blocks until the bakery.

Like the day before, the business was crawling with customers. Almost every seat was taken and there was a long line up front. A beautiful blonde girl that Katniss hadn't seen the day before was handling the register machine, and a tall, dark skinned man was serving the customers.

Peeta walked her behind the counter. "Thresh, elle est Katniss, Katniss, Thresh," he introduced her to the dark skinned man. Thresh.

"Enchanté, mademoiselle," Thresh shook her hand and winked.

Next, Peeta led her to the girl handling the register. "Delly, Katniss. Notre nouvelle Au Pair,"

"Katniss!" Delly exclaimed and hugged her. "Bienvenue en France! Peeta nous a dit beaucoup de toi!"

"Enchanté," she blabbered.

"Come," Peeta led her through the back door she'd seen him go in the previous day. "Père, nous sommes ici, finalement,"

Peeta's dad showed his head from where he was hunched over, frosting some cookies.

"Ah, Katniss, bienvenue," he gave her a hug. Peeta disappeared from her side and she saw him over his dad's shoulder, tying a white apron around his back. He was grinning at them. She wondered if his cheeks ever hurt from grinning so much.

Once his dad let go, Peeta handed her an apron. "Here, put this on. You'll be working up front with Delly and Thresh serving customers. Delly can communicate in English, and Thresh understands a bit, so don't be afraid to ask them anything if you need help. You can also go back and ask me, if you have any questions."

She gulped. "Okay," Peeta led her back up front. "Delly, Thresh, aide Katniss, s'il vous plait. Don't worry," he said to her. "You'll be fine. If after today you don't like it out here, we can try with you working in the back,"

"Merci," he gave her an encouraging smile and went around the back.

"It's easy," Delly said with a thick accent. "I charge the customers and give them the bill. You have to look at the bill, choose the pastry from the glass case and box their orders or serve them in a plate,"

Seemed easy enough, she guessed. Thresh showed her how to wrap the boxes correctly and helped her when she got the first wrappings wrong. After a few tries, she thought she'd gotten the hang of it.

Except that she wasn't prepared for the volume of customers that came through the main doors. Delly worked swiftly, taking the orders and charging the customers. Thresh knew what every tray held, so he didn't have to look around much, unlike her. The only French pastry she knew were the éclairs, and now Peeta's cheese buns, otherwise everything else seemed like Chinese to her.

By the time she'd served another customer wrong for the fourth time, she was beyond frustrated. One customer had even yelled at her, because she had messed up his order and he was running late. He fired words at her in French and she just looked at him with a deer in the headlights look, not knowing what to do. Delly handled it easily. She apologized on Katniss's behalf and added an extra cheese bun to the man's order, everything with a winning smile. When he left he thanked Delly warmly and shot Katniss a dirty look. She sighed.

"What an idiot," Delly mumbled so only Katniss could hear. "You're doing good, trust me."

"Good? I've already messed up four times," she argued.

"It's your first day on the job. On my first day I charged nearly every customer wrong, I didn't know how to handle this thing," she motioned to the register. "But now it's easy. I mess up every once in a while. I'm a human being, and so are you. Don't let customers like that prick ruin your experience. Working here is pretty amazing,"

"Thanks,"

"De rien." Delly went back to her seat behind the register.

She took Delly's advice to heart and calmly continued the rest of her shift until lunch break. She still took some time to locate every pastry, but at least she hadn't messed up since the douche guy incident.

Delly took her break first, then Thresh and finally her. She went around the back and sat on the table, shoulders hunched.

"Rough first day?" Peeta said from behind her. He carried two plates, one in each hand, each with a sandwich and a cheese bun. He set her plate in front of her and sat on the chair next to her. The food looked delicious.

"You have no idea,"

"Thresh mentioned you had an encounter with a customer a while ago. Guy was being an asshole,"

"Yeah, I'm sorry,"

"What for? Not being perfect on your first day? You've worked attending customers before. You know how some people can get like. My point is, don't let them bring you down,"

"I know. Thanks though,"

"Sure," they ate in silence, and when they finished eating each returned to their work place.

The rest of her shift went by smoothly, no more bad encounters with any customers, thank goodness. Thresh and Delly were being nice to her, helping her locate things and set the pastries correctly when they saw her struggling. Slowly Peeta had introduced her to the rest of the team that worked back in the kitchen with him, and everyone welcomed her kindly. Although the past few 30 minutes had been slow, she was relieved when the clock read 4:30. She was practically dead on her feet. And she still had to do the real job she was hired for.

She untied her apron and hung it, and Peeta did the same next to her. "You're coming with me to pick Rye up?" Peeta nodded.

"Let's go." She waved goodbye to everyone out back and later to Thresh and Delly, who made her promise she'd be back the following day.

She and Peeta walked back to the train station in silence, both too tired to strike up a conversation. At this point she didn't even read the map to see where they were going, she just followed Peeta everywhere. Through the streets, train station, and then bus stop until they got to Rye's school. They got there right on time, just as the doors opened. The parents had to retrieve the kids directly from their classroom, so Peeta walked ahead and once again she followed.

They got to Rye's classroom and Peeta knocked on the door. A dark woman with fragile features opened the door. "Ah, monsieur Mellark," she smiled.

"Madame Paylor, vous-allez bien?"

"Oui, merci," then she noticed Katniss hiding behind Peeta and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Madame, j'ai oublié. Elle est Katniss, la nouvelle Au Pair de Rye, " Peeta introduced her.

Madame Paylor looked surprised, but her lips quirked. "Enchanté, Katniss. Je suis madame Paylor, l'enseignant de Rye."

"Bonjour," she said quietly. Madame Paylor went back inside the room, this time bringing Rye with her.

"Katniss! Tu es venú!" his arms wrapped around her legs tightly.

"I promised I would," she ruffled his hair affectingly.

Peeta coughed behind them and feigned a wounded look, "No hug for your old man, Rye?"

Rye quickly let her go and jumped in his father's arms. "Desolé, papa," he kissed Peeta's cheek. "Allez a la maison. Au revoir madame," he waved goodbye to his teacher, who watched them leave with a smirk and a knowing look. Katniss wondered why exactly Madame Paylor looked so smug.

Rye, the usual chatterbox, babbled all the walk and bus ride home, while Katniss and Peeta intervened from time to time. She was so relieved when the house came to view she let out a happy sigh.

"Tired?" Peeta asked.

"A little," she lied.

"Tell me about it. This day was awfully long,"

They waltzed inside the house and Peeta let himself drop in one of the couches face down with a heavy groan. Rye looked at Katniss mischievously and let his bag fall to the ground. He instantly ran and threw himself on his father's back, as if Peeta was a bed. He gave breathless oof! and another groan.

"A whole sack of flour has been dropped on my back. Mon Dieu, I won't be able to walk after this!" he playfully exaggerated. Rye barely weighed 30 pounds or so. "Katniss, please save me from this cub on my back!"

"No! Katniss, help me hold Dad down!" Rye interjected. Peeta continued to playfully try to shrug off Rye of his back while he just giggled and stretched further on Peeta's back. "Aide-moi, Katniss! He's going to throw me over," he giggled and Peeta roared. She cajoled.

She decided she wasn't comfortable enough to lay over Peeta's back. He was her boss. But she wanted to indulge Rye in his game, so she walked over to them and put a little of weight over Peeta's legs, not fully sitting on him.

He gave a defeated wine when she added the extra weight. "I've been defeated by my own cub," he hung his head in shame. Rye hopped off his back and into her arms.

"Wohoo Katniss! We made it,"

"Yes, we did. And you, little cub, need a bath," she scrunched her nose in fake disgust.

"Bath timeeee!" Rye squeaked and kissed her nose before hopping off her arms and running up the stairs, shedding clothes as he went. Katniss laughed behind him. She noticed Peeta watching at her intently from the corner of her eye.

"Well, I uh, should go prep his bath,"

Peeta coughed. "Don't worry. I can do it. I mean, I also need a bath, I can just take him into the shower with me."

Katniss wasn't blind. From the moment she set her eyes on Peeta at the airport she was very aware of how attractive he was. He had dirty blond hair, cerulean eyes, charming smile and a sweet personality, and he was single. She wasn't immune to that kind of thing.

But he was her boss. She lived in his house to take care of his son. She couldn't spend the whole day fantasizing about the man's toned arms and gorgeous eyes. She had a job to do, and she planned on doing it right, so she decided to not let herself get affected by Peeta's hotness. Right that moment though, her cheeks turned red at the thought of him naked in the shower… where he would be bathing his son, for goodness's sake. She nearly slapped her forehead at her own idiocy.

"You can take a bath too, if you want. While I take care of Rye," he ran upstairs behind his son, picking up Rye's clothes.

She'd already taken a bath earlier that morning, and it was freezing, so she wasn't keen to taking another bath. Instead, she decided to go through the bag of clothes Peeta gave her.

The thing was nearly exploding with items inside. Every article of clothing she pulled out was more beautiful than the previous one. Fuzzy coats, sequins, leather. It wasn't really her style. She wasn't used to such a fancy clothes, but it was a gift, so she couldn't really say no. She hung her new outfits inside her closet with the rest of her clothes and after checked in with her friends through WhatsApp. She even had a 20 minute call with Gale while Peeta and Rye were still in the shower.

She decided to start on dinner while the boys were still upstairs. Annie had suggested she tried to show Peeta and Rye about their culture in Panem, so she decided to cook her favorite meal, lamb stew.

She started chopping the vegetables necessary and threw them in the already boiling water. Thankfully Peeta had the lamb in the freezer, so she heated it up in the microwave and seasoned it once it was unfrozen. Peeta had a small stereo in the kitchen, and she happened to hate working in silence, so she turned on the thing and miraculously found a station that transmitted songs in English instead of only French. She started swaying her hips and singing along to a known tune, getting completely lost in the music.

"You're cooking dinner?" Rye asked from behind her. She jumped at the intrusion and turned around furiously to look at them. Rye was smiling, and Peeta had his eyes wide like plates.

"Um, yeah, lamb stew. It's something my Mom did all the time, because my Dad and I loved it, so I thought I could make it for you," she shrugged.

"Need any help?" Peeta squeaked.

"Not really, thanks, though. Rye, do you want to help me and set the table? I'm nearly done with the stew,"

Rye enthusiastically picked up the placemats and the silverware and set it on the table while Peeta set the plates.

"It won't be done for at least 30 minutes," she set the timer. "Do you want to play cards meanwhile?" she suggested.

"Oui!" he ran upstairs to get his cards.

"Thank you for making dinner," Peeta added.

"It's no problem." She smiled tightly. "I thought to introduce you to my favorite thing about me. Food,"

Peeta laughed. "It smells excellent, no doubt,"

The three of them sat and played cards until the timer beeped, signaling their meal was ready. Peeta helped her serve the food on the plates while Rye watched with hungry eyes. She couldn't deny it did smell amazingly.

Peeta heated up some bread he brought from the bakery earlier and dipped it in the stew, moaning around the bite. "This is magnificent," Rye was too busy slurping down his own stew to comment.

"You should've tried my Dad's," she chuckled around her spoonful. "It was out of this world,"

Peeta smiled warmly at her and they finished the rest of their meal in silence. He did the dishes while she helped Rye brush his teeth and got him ready for bed. "Sing for me?" Rye asked, stuffed animal snug warm and tight under the covers with him.

"Um,"

"Pleaseeee?" she sighed. She sang about the meadow back home, wide green fields and baby blue skies that covered everything her eyes focused on. When the song was finished, Rye pleaded for another one.

"Another one? Um, I don't think so, young man." She kissed the tip of his nose just as he'd done earlier, "Sweet dreams," and walked slowly outside the room, switching off his bedside lamp as she went… except she bumped into Peeta on her way out across the hall. She held back a scream.

"Sorry!" he whispered. "Everything okay?" they moved to the far end of the hall away from Rye's room.

"Yeah, everything is fine. He was a bit reluctant to go to sleep, but he caved in eventually,"

"Oh" he rand his hands over his face. "Thank you. For today I mean. You were pretty awesome,"

"It's my job," she said indifferently. On the inside she was thriving. She was glad Peeta thought she'd done a good job on her first day.

"I know, but just… thank you." He looked at her deeply. "I was thinking that this weekend we could go to Paris," he suggested. "You know, so you can see the tower and the Arc and all that? The most touristic sights,"

"That sounds great," she agreed.

"Excellent! Well, I uh, better retire to bed. It's late and I'm, uh, spent." He babbled nervously. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." She assured. Day 2 of 530, give or take.

---

Well. This was so much longer than I expected, and it's not even finished yet. Oops. It won't be very long, maybe 30k or so words. Tell me what you thought and what would you like to see next.

PS: Excuse my poor French! I'm not an expert on the subject, sorry!

PS2: I've never been to France, so excuse my poor knowledge on the subject. I just know what my friend's told me and what's available on the Internet.

Happy New Year 2018! I believe this upcoming year will be amazing.