Hey guys! This is just a short story that popped into my head after I watched the film. It takes place during the days that Katniss and Peeta spend in the cave, and I decided to post it because Peeta was always my favourite character in the books and I wanted to give him a little chance to just be himself.

When I come back from that evening's hunt, Peeta is leaning against a boulder in the corner of the cave and gingerly attempting to put some weight on his injured leg, with little success. His face, already filthy with remnants of paint and flushed dark from the fever, is fixed in a horrible grimace that makes me want to wince in sympathy.

I quickly put down my bow and game to come over and help him out, and the sound makes Peeta look up. For a moment, he looks relieved that I am alright, and then as I start to help him back into a seated position, he flashes me one of his dazzling smiles.

Of course, this is nothing new. Whenever I re-enter the cave after having left, or even if I have just been pre-occupied for a while and haven't been paying Peeta much attention, the second I'm back with him he always smiles at me. And it's not a mushy, adoring, sponsor winning smile either… it's as if he's genuinely in a good mood, even enjoying himself.

Usually, I just nod at him, to acknowledge that fact that I've seen the smile and he can stop, but it has been going on for so long I can't force myself to take it any longer. It's unhinging the way he can sometimes act as though we're on some kind of holiday, just vacationing together in a cave for kicks. How can he even pretend when so much is at stake? And if he's just doing it for the cameras… then how can he live with himself? After all, wasn't he the one who didn't want to lose who he was for the games? It's hard for me to imagine that the boy who was so bent on preserving his essence could fake such realistic smiles just for the people who are cheering to watch him either kill someone or die himself.

So, forgetting that the audience and sponsors are listening to me for just a moment, I ask, "Why do you do that, Peeta? What's the point?"

He looks somewhat taken aback at my irritated tone, "Well… I guess I just figured that if I didn't start to, you know, rehabilitate my leg, it would –"

I frown as I sit next to him, untying what's left of the braid I fixed in the morning and preparing to redo it, "No, not that. Why did you smile?"

At this, Peeta laughs at me, saying, "I'm sorry Katniss: I didn't realize that it bothered you. Won't happen again."

Somehow, his levity irritates me even more, "Peeta, I'm serious. Why are you always smiling?" My voice is laced with more menace than I had intended, but this doesn't seem to bother him. He merely shrugs at me, "Why shouldn't I be?"

I can think of about a hundred reasons why, but before I can say so, Peeta continues talking, "What would my no longer smiling achieve, Katniss?"

"You'd stop driving me insane, for one thing." I grumble, but only half-heartedly because I am starting to see Peeta's point.

He realizes this, perceptive scamp that he is, and grins at me yet again, "That's a lie and you know it. And for the record, I smile when I see you coming because I'm glad to see you, plain and simple. Because I'm glad to not be alone anymore, and because I can hardly believe that it really is you here with me, taking care of me."

While he says this his grin fades into something more serious and his eyes lock onto mine. Having his eyes, with their completely honest and loving expression, burn into my own feels like looking right at the sun. It soon becomes too much for me, and I am about to break the eye contact when Peeta takes my hand:

"Also Katniss… when I smile at you, you sometimes look just a little bit less miserable and desperate. Heck, once you almost smiled back. And if there's one person I know who really should smile a lot more often, it's you."

For just a split second, I'm annoyed again. I think: sure, it's all very well for him to say that I should smile more often while he's safe and sound in this cave and I'm out there risking my neck hunting, foraging, fighting and hiding… but this thought quickly subsides and is replaced by another. Namely, that I was wrong: Peeta's not just smiling for the cameras and the sponsors. Despite the extreme pain he's constantly in and the hopelessness of his situation, he's still smiling that beautiful, heartwarming smile of his because he wants to cheer me up.

In other words, the Capitol hasn't broken or changed him, not by a long shot. And suddenly, I know that he was never in any real danger of becoming just another piece in their Hunger Games.

So, giving Peeta's hand a little squeeze, I smile back at him.

Thanks for reading! Leave a review, if you've got a moment, and remember to smile at someone today =]