For once, Katniss found herself enjoying the life she was living in. At least, she had been enjoying her life for the past few years or so, although she had lost count of how long exactly it was. She could not say that her life had been perfect from the moment that Peeta had entered it because it had been anything but that, but things began to improve eventually.
After Snow was removed from power, due to the rebellion's work, and then a misguided arrow from her bow, Katniss was sent back to District Twelve, once she had served suitable time in the Capitol. There, she met a still recovering but in considerably better form Peeta, who she tried to avoid at first. However, it did not take long for her to realise that she needed to see him, at least.
Quite often, when they had gotten used to each other's company again and Katniss had gotten used to his occasional episode, they would spend the whole day together. Sometimes, they would work on the book that Katniss' father had started, but, other times, they helped each other learn what the other excelled in. And, of course, there were just days when they didn't go anywhere but by the other's side.
It took months after they first arrived back before they stayed with each other during the night. They must have known that they were both experiencing the same nightmares, but neither was brave enough to ask the other to stay with them. It was only when they fell asleep next to each other in the meadow one day that Peeta was woken by Katniss' screams and swore to never leave her alone again.
It was summer when they got back to District Twelve, but it was the next spring that came to the District when Katniss and Peeta were finally seen around the District, holding hands. Next, came public hugs, not privately being held during the terrifying experiences of the night. Even then, it took another few months, nearly half a year, before Katniss would even kiss Peeta's cheek, let alone his lips.
But Peeta never pushed for anything from Katniss because, like the girl he had fallen in love with so long ago, he was terrified that something would go wrong if everything happened too quickly. So they let everything happen when it did and they never progressed any further than kissing, for fear of things falling out of their control, like they did before.
In the autumn, just over five years after they returned to District Twelve, Peeta took Katniss for a walk, to a place he said that he had discovered. He took her for a walk through the woods and they eventually came out in a place that Katniss knew well, but could not break his heart by telling him that it was where se used to come with her father.
They spent the whole day there, with Peeta telling Katniss all the tales he had heard about the people who had lived in the woods before the President had put the fence up around the District; of course, there were people that had snuck out after then, but that was meant to be kept quiet. He, of course, pretended to act shocked when Katniss reminded him that she had often snuck into the woods before.
When they had studied the sunset and the stars that soon followed, Peeta told Katniss that he knew that where they were was the home of some of her strongest childhood memories. He, then, told her that he had brought her there because he had wanted to add to her memories of the place. It was then that he proposed to her.
Because Katniss did not want to wait to marry Peeta, they organised their wedding to fall in winter, on Christmas Day, as it was always Katniss' favourite day when she was a child. They invited their closest friends from their past, but they told everyone to keep it quiet because they didn't want a camera crew watching them. It was only going to be their day.
However, they had agreed to incorporate parts of Christmas Day into their wedding, as they could; everything but snow, at least. Katniss had asked for a huge Christmas dinner, decorated Christmas trees everywhere, and for their first kiss as a married couple to be under the mistletoe. In return, Peeta had insisted that the man who would marry them dressed as Father Christmas.
When it came to the night before their wedding, Katniss and Peeta spent it together, as usual, but Peeta demanded that he would be blindfolded by whoever woke him up in the morning, so he didn't break the tradition of not seeing the bride before the wedding. Then, Annie and Johanna woke Katniss up and helped her get ready, before they went to Peeta's back garden, where the ceremony would be held.
After the dresses that Cinna had made for her, the dress that Katniss made with the help of her two maids of honour was the most beautiful thing she had seen. It was mainly white, but was also made with silver and light blue, so that it looked like she was made of ice when she stood in the right light. She had had enough of being the Girl on Fire, apparently, so she wanted to try being the Ice Queen instead.
Her dress also stood for the new and blue parts of the wedding rhyme, which she had been careful to follow. The hairstyle Annie and Johanna had put her hair into incorporated Annie's wedding tiara, which was a borrowed thing. The old thing she has was clipped onto the front of her dress and shone as bright as it did when it was a beacon of hope to the nation: her mockingjay pin.
She didn't even feel any nerves when she began to walk towards Peeta, about to embark on the biggest adventure of her life so far. All she could feel was excitement and a slight sense of relief that she was going to finally marry Peeta, after all the years they'd put it off for. Therefore, although she enjoyed everything that happened, she could focus on nothing more than her new husband.
All too soon, however, it was over and they were toasting bread in Peeta's front room. When he looked up, smiling so warmly at her, he tipped her chin up and whispered, "Merry Christmas. And thank you for making my life so great. I love you, Mrs Mellark."