A/N - Based on the prompt: Explain it to me again. Why do we need to pretend to be married?
"Explain it to me again – why do we need to pretend to be married?"
Peeta chanced a glimpse at his girlfriend and grimaced. She looked seriously annoyed as they stood outside the restaurant waiting for his family to show up. He wrapped her in his arms and bent down to kiss her.
Katniss turned her head at the last second and his lips landed on her cheek instead.
"Aw, c'mon," he cajoled. "I've already said I'm sorry a million times. She was going on and on and I couldn't stand it anymore. It just slipped out."
And he was sorry. Well, sorry that Katniss was mad at him anyway. He truly didn't mean any harm by it. It had been a tactic to survive his usual telephone lecture on all the ways he was a disappointment to his mother and topping the list this month was his unmarried state and his failure to provide her with grandchildren. He'd only meant to hint that she shouldn't make assumptions that he and Katniss weren't committed to one another and somehow that had snowballed into a secret wedding at City Hall. The next thing he knew, his parents, his brothers and their wives were all on a plane from Panem to Seam City where he and Katniss lived. The summons to dinner had followed as soon as their plane touched the ground.
Katniss's head fell to his shoulder and her arms slipped around his waist under his dinner jacket. "Your mother hates me. She has always hated me. This is going to be a disaster. I'm a terrible liar."
He rubbed her back in slow circles and placed a kiss near her temple where she'd woven a tiny braid into her luxurious dark mane of hair. It travelled over her ear to just below her crown, where it joined an identical braid from the other side of her head.
"It doesn't have to be a lie," he whispered in her ear. Fuck, oh fuck. This wasn't how he'd planned to ask her. What was he doing?
Katniss's head shot up, her grey eyes like silver moons in her face. "Have you completely lost your mind?"
Out of the frying pan and into the fire, he supposed. Peeta pulled the ring box out of his pocket. He lifted the ring out of the blue velvet cushion and slid it on Katniss's finger. "I bought this a few months ago and I've been waiting for the right time to give it to you. Marry me, Katniss."
"Peeta," Katniss sputtered, too flabbergasted by the beautiful ring on her finger to find the words to protest. It was a perfect pearl, sheltered by tiny diamonds set like leaves growing from a vine of white gold that twined around her finger. It rested on her dainty finger like it was made for her. She wondered if it had been.
"Don't say no. Just think about it," he pleaded. "We'll go to City Hall tomorrow and make it official." He pulled the matching wedding band out of the box and added it to the engagement ring before bringing her knuckles to his lips. "I love you. You have to know that I love you."
The panicked look her eyes began to soften. "I do."