It's All Over
I smile down gently at the exhausted girl; no, woman curled in my arms. Her silk chestnut her is still slick with perspiration, splaying across my bare chest and shoulders, smelling of me and lilac after a night I will never forget until death comes to wrap me in its cruel embrace and whisk me away from my beloved Katniss. I brush my lips across her tan forehead; my mind taking me back to all the times it nearly left with the Reaper, holding out the icy blanket of flames, ready to pull me into its vice grip and choke the life out of me.
There was morning when I was still residing with those ruthless Careers, waiting with them in miserable silence as we waited for Katniss to leave the tree. She cut down the tracker jacker nest hovering above our heads in deadly silence. She managed to escape with my help, but at the expense of Cato slicing my leg open with the sleek chrome metal of the Capitol's sword. But when Rue died and the announcer proclaimed that two victors would be crowned if they originated from the same District, Katniss came to my wounded form in a matter of minutes.
The following day, another announcement of a 'feast' was pronounced, and our desperately needed item was medicine for my blood poisoned leg. I had pleaded Katniss to stay, but her fierce stubbornness refused to subside. But in return, she kissed me with a passion in which I had been craving since I was a teenager. No such passion was transferred when she lightly pecked my dirt and blood stained check as a form of silence. At the time, she would have just blushed at said it was for the cameras, but now, we both know it would be a complete lie.
Soon after, with the help of the tribute/mutts, we managed to kill off Cato, but once more at the expense of my leg, was spliced open once more. But this time it could not be saved. But before we could celebrate our newfound victory, the Gamemakers blindsided us by revoking their previous rule change of granting two victors life and the so called; as Effie would have called it, the 'honour' of winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games. I told Katniss, to take my life, as seeing a) I was bleeding to death and b) a life without her was not a life, but Hell. I had tried to reason by bringing up Prim, Gale and her Mother, but she just brushed it off like a harmless bug.
She instantly refused, instead taking out those seemingly harmless violet berries that took Foxface's life. She placed them in my hand, a grim smile plastered smile on her bloodied features. We counted our 'final' seconds together, my hand brushing across her fire singed braid one 'final' time. And yet again the Gamemakers decided to intervene, before we about to throw the nightlock into our mouths.
Little did we know that we had started the rebellion that decided to crush anything and everything we had dear to us and mould it into a mangled, disgusting creature similar to those things in which the Capitol just loved to send after me and Katniss.
After another interview with Ceaser, we were relocated to our new homes in Victor Village, but were thrown into the Victory Tour not a week later. Starting at twelve, we worked our way up to Eleven, when an elderly man whistled the familiar tune that Katniss had deemed 'Rue's Lullaby', everything changed. The Peacekeepers brought him onstage a shoot him through the head mercilessly, watching in horror as his wrinkled body fell lifeless on the hard wooden floors. He passed through the rest of the districts in polite quietness, only giving the required speech to the large crowd.
But when the announcement of the Quarter Quell was introduced to what was left of our decimated world, Katniss nearly lost what was left of her mind.
About two weeks later, we were thrown viciously back into the arena once more. Almost instantly, me, Katniss, Finnick and Mags formed an unlikely alliance. But following a desperate search for water, I was shocked to near death by the force field similar to what Haymitch had used to win the previous Quarter Quell. According to Katniss, my heart stopped beating, forcing Finnick to revive me with an ancient method called CPR. He was able to bring me back, much to Katniss' relief. I know this because when I awoke from my near eternal slumber, she was sobbing-slightly hysterical- and demanding that I never put her through such a terrifying scenario ever again, in which I immediately obeyed. Once I had recovered enough to move again, my body weak as an injured animal stuck in a rushing stream, but my heart steady, we trekked on. Katniss watched me with a hawk's eye, and protected me with a guard dog's loyalty. She firmly refused to be separated from my side at all times, in which everyone knew better than to try and test her patience.
But then came the day of Beetee's trap.
Johanna ripped the tracker out of her wrist, non to gently, I managed to note. And during her drunken unconscious/conscious haze, she blew a hole in the in the force field that hummed in a deadly silence that nearly ended my already short life. As soon as I heard the explosion, my task was forgotten, and when instinct told me to find her, I followed. I had nearly managed to snag her, when the seemingly 'destroyed' District 13 pried her from me with cold, sleek, metallic claw-like fingers. Immediately thereafter, the Capitol decided to take me hostage, forcing me into an interview with Ceaser Flickerman for the fourth time in my life. I kept the boyish charm I had following the previous time I was featured by the power-blue coloured man.
Once I was done with my little 'interview', they began to demand information I didn't have. They tortured me in many ways, the Jay-jays copying Katniss' screams ringing in my ears, whipping me, anything.
But when they realized that the hope of the Girl on Fire was supposedly holding my tongue like an Avox, they eliminated the last of my hope by injecting my brain with tracker jacker venom. They forced me on stage once more- more so for Snow- where I fatally warned Katniss of the bombs that the Capitol planned on destroying Thirteen with, and all thanks to a Peacekeeper whom stupidly informed me of it. The beat me immediately, the last thing I remembered my pained blue eyes seeing was the camera falling to the floor, the audience gasp, and my crimson blood splattering across the once pristine marble floors directly in front of the camera.
In which was still rolling.
Everything from there was a managed blur. I vaguely remember my mind at war with itself, telling me that the love of my life was nothing more than a lying, deceiving mutt from the depths of hell.
I fought it like the plague.
They kept me locked in a 5' by 6' foot cell, stone walls and no source of light. It gave me a great chance to try and exterminate the demons condemning me to partial insanity.
But on the day they decided to kill my makeup team, whom had become family to me, the dam broke. From the day until 13 found me, anyone who came near me ran a great risk of having a limb removed from their palpable flesh at any given moment.
They turned me into a bloodthirsty monster.
One the fateful day in which Thirteen rescued me, I tried my hardest to keep myself unconscious, to protect Katniss from the demon the molded me into.
Yet the doctors tending to me made sure I was conscious to see the Mockingjay. The demon possessed me and imprinted it clear in Katniss' mind to fear me by nearly strangling her.
I how I wish I had some nightlock.
Delly managed to keep me somewhat sane in the Hellish world I was forced into. She carefully explained to me about what happened to Twelve, how it was destroyed by the Capitol, and that it was not Katniss' fault. And about my family, and how they couldn't make it in time.
After about a week or two, the guards took me lunch, where I planned to explain to Katniss what had happened, and that the demon before her was not me, but the Capitol.
But Gale stopped me before I could even sit down.
"Listen here, 'Bread Boy', I think you've damaged her enough. Now go run and play with some more of your insane little buddies over there and shoo." He snapped at me. I could see the angry, unshed tears shining in Katniss' slate gray eyes. My blood began to boil, and it took all my willpower and strength to force the demon I decided to dub 'TCP' or The Capitol Peeta, not to attack either of the two.
Instead I tried to take deep, calming breaths and left the harsh scene with angry tears simmering in my eyes.
Weeks later, Katniss was the rebellion's Mockingjay, and we were both on the front lines of the Capitol. But during the time in Tigris' cellar, she cleansed most of TCP out of my pores, and all with a chaste kiss on the lips in a time in which I had given up.
But Gale turned on her. With the help of Beetee, he designed a bomb for the helpless children surrounding Snow's gate. Prim being one of them.
I managed to grab her, and could feel the terse flames licking my body, yet saved prim from becoming nothing more than ashes.
Now, a month and a half later, things are better. Prim is out of the hospital and is nursing bruises, Katniss killed both Coin and Snow, and I rarely get flashbacks, as I've deemed them.
And Gale…
At first, Katniss ordered him to stay away from her family, me included, and never to speak to her again. She's now calmed slightly, having talked to him once or twice. He tried to explain it wasn't him, that the bomb could have been Beetee's, but she just got angry again. Their friendship crumbled quickly.
Katniss admitted her love for me once Prim and I were out of ICU. TCP still lingers in my mind, but when he decides to show his ugly face, Katniss is there to rival him with soothing words and reassuring kisses.
I'm pulled away from my deep thoughts by a soft moan beside me, feeling two taut arms curling around my waist.
"Round 2?" I question curtly, already expecting the answer I know I will receive.
"As tempting as that sounds, I would actually enjoy walking today." She snips playfully. Raising from the red satin covers of our bed, she walks over to the drawer and rummages around, bending over as if looking for buried treasure in the sand, or in this case, the mess of clothes I call my shirt drawer.
"Nice view from over here." I call, smirking as her head twitches slightly in agitation.
"I wish could say the same." She snaps back, finally pulling out a black shirt with cuts sprinkling it. She pulls it on over her head, then walking over to the next drawer and throwing boxers in my eyes.
"Geez, in the eye every time." I pout in mock sadness.
"Aww, what? Does bread boy not like it that I have a better aim then he does?"
"Hey, you've been a hunter your entire life! That's no fair!" I cry out, throwing my hands in the air angrily, even though we both know it's a residing joke.
"I've tried to teach you. You're about a good a hunter as I am a baker." She jokes, pulling on white lace underwear and deep blue jeans the hug her trim curves and have small rips on the side.
"That's an unfair contrast!" She pulls on some Converse, her favorite new shoes, and pulls her hair into its normal braid.
"Boo-hoo for you. Sae's over, breakfast is in 10 minutes bread boy." Her places a kiss on my forehead and bounds downstairs.
Groaning, I pull myself into a sitting position and pull on the regular. A black t-shirt, faded jeans and some sneakers I lightly comb my ash blonde hair and brush my teeth, then pad downstairs as well.
Katniss is sitting at the table, sipping some hot cocoa, staring out the window and looking at the woods dreamily. She has no clue how adorable she looks like that. As stealthily as I can, I tiptoe over to her and wrap my arms around her waist.
"Peeta! Get off!" She squeals, placing her mug down on the table. Her tries to pry my hands off are somewhat funny, but when I kiss her cheek, the games stop.
Her lips tilt to meet mine in passion, and when we pull away, her face is flushed.
"I want to have picnic in the Meadow today." She informs, in which I nod in agreement.
"k. But hey, why did it take you so long to get that shirt?" I can't help but ask.
"How could you not remember this? I remember it pretty well." She's speaking in riddles, and she knows how annoying it is for me.
"Ugh! I give up!"
"It's the shirt you wore for our first games you dolt." She teases, punching my arm lightly.
"How did you keep it?" I can't help but ask.
"I'll never reveal my secrets." She laughs, flinging her braid across her shoulder.
Wrapping my arms around her once more, I whisper what I do every morning to her.
"You love me. Real or not real?"
"Real."