It was hot. Ridiculously hot - sweat pearled across her brow, ran a shaky line down her spine, made the thin shorts she wore stick to the back of her thighs like a second skin. For the ten billionth time, she asked herself if coming here had really been the smartest decision - then, looking over at her sister, answered it the same way she had every other time. Yes, of course it was.
Except…right now, Katniss Everdeen was hot, bothered and felt like a complete fish out of water. And she was a very, very long way from home.
At this time of year, she was used to dubiously patterned knitted sweaters and snow piled up to her knees and caps tucked over her ears and eggnog and fireplaces. What she wasn't used to, was shorts and flip-flops and spending the afternoon in the pool and eating cold seafood and hearing demands for the A/C to be blasted to full.
Her sister had somehow managed to become used to it. Meeting an Australian on one of those drink til you drop vacation tours that made Katniss cringe just thinking about, Prim Everdeen had fallen in love, gotten married and hightailed it to the other side of the world. And after spending the last two Christmases apart, Katniss had finally managed to scrounge up enough vacation leave to visit her sister in her new homeland.
She'd been excited - not only by the idea of seeing Prim after such a long time, but the idea of visiting somewhere new. Katniss had barely stepped outside of their hometown, Seam Valley, let alone gone anywhere outside of the US. Except in the flurry of packing, finishing up a proposal at work and finalising the travel insurance she'd forgotten to do until the last minute, she hadn't really paid enough heed to any of Prim's comments about the heat and weather at this time of year. She wished she had. Because while she'd known it would be hot, she hadn't understood just how hot. And if she had, she probably still wouldn't be so weirded out by the fact that it was two days out from Christmas and she'd spent most of the day in a bikini.
Frosty the Snowman was most definitely not welcome here.
"Hey Katniss, you doing okay?" Prim's husband Damian - tall, tanned, with broad shoulders and a messy head of blond waves - rested a hand on her shoulder, holding out an ice-cold beer towards her with the other. She took it, and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said faintly, rolling the chilled bottle across her forehead. "It's just-"
"Hot, I know," he grinned. "I promise it's not normally like this. Well, not this bad, anyway. We normally get pretty decent breezes here at Christmas which help, but…yeah. Not exactly Christmas in Seam Valley, right?"
She snorted, remembered the first Christmas Prim and Damian had spent together in their hometown. The poor guy had spent the entire week in about ten layers of thermals.
"About as far away as you can get." She took a sip of the beer, then tipped her head towards the pool. "You going in?"
"Nah. I gotta go pick up my cousin from the airport in about 5. I was just grabbing my thongs when I saw you on the deck and figured you needed a drink before I left."
It took her a moment to remember not to be absolutely horrified by the thought of Damian in a thong (it's different, Katniss, remember it's different!), before her brows drew together. "There's still more people to come?"
He laughed. "We drag a pretty big crew together for Christmas. Our family, plus my mum's sister and her family, and my dad's brother and his family. Plus Del's in-laws, and a few other family ring-ins here and there. We come here from pretty much all over Australia just for this. There's usually 23 rellies here on the actual day. Now 24 with you."
"Wait - rellies means relatives, right?"
Damian grinned. "Yep."
"Holy shit," Katniss muttered under her breath. She was used to a Christmas with her uncle Haymitch, her neighbours next door - and Prim, until the last few years. "You know I'm never going to remember everyone's name."
"No worries about that," Damian assured her. "They won't expect you to." With a mock salute, he stepped away. "Anyway, when Prim drags herself out of the pool, let her know I'll be back in about an hour or so."
Katniss nodded rather than replying, then turned back to face the pool that was already overflowing with Prim, Damian's sister Delly and her husband Thom, their two children and two people she wasn't entirely sure she'd met yet. The kids squealed and laughed, shooting each other - and an equally laughing Prim - with oversized water guns.
Christmas was definitely going to be different this year.
"I'm being serious, Katniss. You might not believe it, but I am." Her little sister's eyes were wide, honest, pleading, her hands cupped around her coffee mug like it was a lifeline.
"You met a guy on your vacation and now you want to get married." She couldn't help the incredulity that tinged her voice, but the one thing she hadn't expected Prim to say when she returned home from Europe was that she'd met someone, and wanted to settle down, at the ripe age of 22. Weren't those tours the ones where you sowed your wild oats or stupid shit like that, not where you met your future husband?
Right?
"Yes, that's exactly it!"
It took Katniss a moment to realise Prim was answering her spoken, rather than unspoken, question. "But you've known this guy all of 5 minutes! Where will you live?! We live in a poky two bedroom apartment, Prim, which barely accommodates the two of us."
She watched Prim swallow heavily, the words falling from her lips hesitantly. "Um, we, uh, wouldn't live here. We'd, um, live in Australia. Near Sydney, where his family lives."
The announcement hit her like a ton of bricks, and she took a startled step back.
"You…want to move to Australia." She said the words carefully, as though each one were a ticking time bomb.
Prim nodded, studied the mug in her lap. "I've already looked into it, I can continue my nursing studies down there. And I can't ask Damian to leave his business behind. He flips houses, Katniss, and he's really good at it. Like, really good. Insanely good."
"He can do that here," Katniss said stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest. "We have houses too, you know."
"But I don't want him to," Prim said quietly, lifting her gaze. "I want to move there."
Dropping sullenly to the sofa beside Prim, Katniss sighed. "What about me? You're just going to gallivant across the world and leave me here?" That was the problem, more than anything else. She'd lost her dad, and then her mom, in quick succession in her teens. Prim was it. And now…and now she wanted to go.
Resting her hand on Katniss' knee, Prim smiled. "Maybe for once, you'll start to live for you, not for me. Put yourself first, for once." She tucked a wayward strand of blonde hair - recently chopped off into a sassy bob that made her look sophisticated and glamorous - behind her ear. "I promise it won't be any time soon. I want Damian to come here first, meet you and Uncle Haymitch. I'd still like to get married here. But long term…we'll be there. And I'm not completely dropping off the face of the earth - you can always visit, you know. Mi casa es tu casa and all that."
Biting down on her lower lip to try and distract herself from the tears that pricked at the corner of her eyes, Katniss sighed, reached out and shucked her sister on the chin. She knew, regardless of anything else, her sister's happiness always came first. "Ahhh, dammit, when the hell did you grow up, Little Duck? Speaking Spanish, getting sassy haircuts, getting married…"
"Don't worry, I still watched Adventure Time this morning," Prim whispered conspiratorially, and Katniss snorted a laugh back.
At least some things never changed.
She'd just popped a cold shrimp in her mouth when Damian stepped through the sliding door onto the back deck, talking a mile a minute in a shorthand of local colloquialisms she'd quickly realised she'd never figure out. Since her arrival, Katniss had determined that here, there was a penchant for adding an 'O' or an 'IE' to practically anything you could - she'd already heard the liquor store called the 'bottle-o', the gas station called the 'servo', and Prim's father-in-law was Johnno, as opposed to just John. The BBQ was referred to as the barbie, and breakfast - hell, the argument over the right way to spell its affectionate nickname (brekkie had narrowly beaten out breakie in the Cartwright Family Poll) had taken up virtually an entire morning.
But despite all of that, she still didn't understand what the hell Damian was referring to while he blathered on about getting absolutely shitfaced and passing out on a maccas slide the weekend before schoolies. Except for shitfaced. She at least knew whatever had been going on, people had been drunk. Very drunk.
Dropping a chilled six pack of beers on the table, Damian leant down and planted a loud, smacking kiss on Prim's head before dropping into the seat beside her, running a hand through his wind-tousled blond hair.
"Sorry we're late. Apparently there was a huuuuuuge line-up at the baggage carousel that took forever." Damian rolled his eyes, shooting his gaze back up to the other man still lingering in the doorway, shadows playing across his face and making him unrecognisable.
"There was a huge line up," the other man protested. "It was insane. I've got no reason to lie to you, Damo."
Damian smirked wryly. "Other than the curvy redhead you came strolling out with, batting her eyelashes at you, practically climbing you like a tree? You're a stud, man, and you know the ladies love you. I'm pretty sure the only line was the one you were feeding her to get her number - and I'll bet you got it, too. When's the date?"
"Leave him alone," Delly admonished good naturedly from the other end of the table, before she grinned and flipped her long, damp braid over her shoulder. "He can't help his ridiculous levels of charm and pretty boy face."
Barely holding back a scoff at Damian and Delly's words, Katniss snagged another shrimp and pursed her lips as she chewed on it. From the sounds of things, she'd known plenty of guys like this one. Guys who used their charm and wiles to get a girl into their arms or - in a lot of cases - into their bed, only to dump them almost immediately. She'd seen it happen with her college roommate, Johanna, had seen it happen at virtually every frat party she'd reluctantly been dragged along to. It had even happened to her, while she was still young and naive enough to think that Cato Anderson had ever really given a shit about her. Prim had never mentioned a playboy cousin before, and to be honest, the last thing she wanted over this vacation was to have some cocky Australian strutting around, crowing about his conquests. She just wanted a nice, quiet time with her sister and her new family - no waves, no annoyances, and absolutely no assholes.
Then the new arrival stepped outside into the faint afternoon light, and Katniss finally got her first glimpse of him. And she immediately choked on her food.
He was insanely attractive. Possibly the most attractive guy she'd ever seen.
Of course he was.
Thumping at her chest, and reaching blindly for her glass of ice water, she gulped the liquid down, her eyes watering as she tried to get the shrimp to dislodge. If she was going to die, it wasn't going to be on a damn piece of seafood in Australia.
"Katniss, are you okay?" Prim asked in concern, half rising to her feet. Waving her hand as a gesture for Prim to sit, she nodded her head, before placing the glass back down.
"Fine, I'm fine," she finally croaked out. "I just choked on a bit of shrimp."
"Prawn," the new arrival corrected her automatically, and she glared up at him, only to find him staring back, his bright blue eyes fixated on her.
"What?" she snapped.
"We call it a prawn here," he said mildly.
She rolled her eyes, her back immediately going up before she had a chance to stop it. "Shrimp, prawn, whatever, it's the same."
"Well, technically-"
Damian reached up, punching the man in the arm. "Geez, you've gotta be right, haven't you, mate?" He grinned, shaking his head before turning to Katniss. "I guess on this note, I should introduce you to my cousin, Peeta Mellark. He'll be staying here for the holidays as well. Peeta, this is Prim's sister, Katniss."
Huh. Peeta. So Prim HAD mentioned this cousin before. She'd just clearly left out all the sordid details of his philandering ways.
He smiled at her, all wide mouth, and perfect teeth, and slight dimple dipping in the edge of his chin. "Hi Katniss, it's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
She smiled through thinned lips in response, reaching forward to grab another shrimp - she'd call it whatever the hell she damn well wanted to - and stuffing it in her mouth so she didn't have to speak, though the temptation to tell him she didn't know shit about him was strong. At her silent response, he simply shrugged, before turning to Prim to playfully swat at her ponytail and snagging a beer. Delly's kids screamed his name from the pool, before they tore out of the water, throwing themselves into his arms as he laughed, his clothes now soaked.
Slumping down in her seat as the conversation around her started up, and laughter flowed, she felt annoyance rise in her. For some reason, the latest family member to join the event had immediately raised her hackles. But she should have known that the perfectly friendly and normal family she'd met so far would have one rotten apple, really. There was always one, wasn't there? A creepy uncle, a drunk brother, a rude bitch of a mother-in-law. Just, this time, it was a cocky player of a cousin who, from the looks of things, seemed able to charm absolutely everyone, ages 10 and up.
Even her sister.
Yay.
She tossed and turned again, maybe for the millionth time that night. She kept hearing noises she wasn't used to and, thanks to her best friend Madge's scare tactics of sending her email upon email of things like 'Australia's deadliest creatures!' and 'Animals that can kill you silently in your sleep!', she was certain that each sound was one of those deadly creatures, come to eat her.
Then she pushed off the thin sheet that covered her body, and yanked open the bedroom door, storming down the hallway in a huff. Get a grip on yourself, Everdeen. You hike in woods filled with animals that could kill you every damn day.
She didn't bother to flick the switch to turn the light on, already well accustomed to the layout of the vacation house after three days there. It was one the Cartwright family had rented for almost 2 decades - albeit extensively renovated 3 years earlier, Prim had informed her - and as their family had grown and expanded, and others had begun to join them, two other houses a short walk down the road had also been rented, bringing together three generations over the vacation period. It still blew Katniss' mind that they had this many people together over Christmas, but, she had to admit, it was also kind of nice.
Opening the fridge door, she perused the contents inside before reaching for the water jug, turning on her heel and bumping the door closed with her hip. She crossed to the other side of the kitchen, her eyes adjusting to the dark with the faint light of the moon helping to guide her, reaching for a glass from the open-fronted cabinet.
The cold water was a balm to her throat, and to the warm, muggy air that seemed to permeate everywhere. If she'd been at home, she probably would have shuffled into the kitchen and warmed some milk, flavoured it with a hint of cinnamon and honey, and watched out the window as the snow fell in gentle flakes outside. Here, she watched the slightest of breezes dance across the top of the pool, the water rippling from edge to edge with the movement.
"Couldn't sleep?"
Her quiet ruminations were interrupted by a soft voice, and she whirled, hitting her hip on the edge of the countertop, barely biting back a curse.
"Sorry," he apologised, and she groaned inwardly as she realised it was Peeta. "I didn't intend to startle you. I thought you would have heard me come down the hall - my family tells me I sound like a herd of elephants when I walk."
"Well I didn't," she snapped. "I also didn't expect people to be creeping around at night, scaring the shit out of others."
He lifted his hands in a gesture of defeat. "Hey, hey, I didn't mean to. I just needed a drink, and…" he trailed off, his arms falling limply to his sides. His head cocked slightly to the left, and part of her wondered what she'd see in his eyes if it was lighter. "I, uh, get the feeling we've started off on the wrong foot somehow."
Katniss folded her arms across her chest, tucking the bottom of the glass against the crook in her arm. Standing there, clad only in a loose pair of gym shorts and his blond hair a matted mess, he looked…well, she didn't know what he looked like. Only that it annoyed the crap out of her. "We don't know each other, and have no need to, so I don't think we have to worry about anything."
"On the contrary," Peeta said simply. "We're, in short, family. And we're both staying here for the next week or so. If I've offended you, somehow or someway, then I'd like to know what I did so we can start over. I like Prim a lot, she's good for my cousin. I'd like to think her sister wouldn't be all that bad."
Katniss lifted her glass, swallowing another mouthful of water before responding. Her voice was biting when she spoke. "I've met people like you before, far, far too many. Using their charm and ability to be friendly with everyone to get what they want, to get the girls they want. Guys who are players-"
His mouth dropped open almost comically. "Wait, you think I'm a player?"
"Of course. I heard what Damian said about you when you arrived."
He snorted, and took a step forward until he was leaning back against the far edge of the counter, his palms resting on the smooth surface. "Half the stuff out of Damian's mouth is designed to yank your chain. It's like our honour bound duty to shit stir each other, and we do it every opportunity we can get."
"And most things people like to use to 'shit stir'," Katniss emphasised her words with an air quote with her free hand, "Have some element of truth to them."
Peeta shook his head, chuckled to himself softly. "Okay, then, Katniss, you've got me. In less than 8 hours, you've got me completely pegged. Nice work, detective."
She screwed her nose up at his dismissive tone. "You don't have to be pissed because I'm right."
This time, he looked up at her directly, and the moon must have shifted, because a sliver of light shot across his face, highlighting eyes that were bright blue and intense, a glimmer of…something - she couldn't quite determine what - making them look like they were shining. Damn. They were even more piercing than she remembered from earlier.
"You might think you're right," Peeta said softly, his voice hinting at an underlying layer of coolness that she hadn't expected. "But maybe you need to give people the benefit of the doubt before you start laying into them. Especially when they're a complete stranger who's done nothing but say hello to you." He moved past her to the fridge, snagging a stainless steel water bottle from the shelf before closing the door with a restraint that she admired. "Good night, Katniss."
She listened as his - indeed, very heavy - footsteps disappeared up the hallway before she placed her glass in the sink and scrambled after him to her own room. She closed the door behind her and threw herself down onto her bed, watching the ceiling fan whirr overhead as she felt the annoyance from earlier in the evening start to creep in again.
She knew what was bothering her, even if she didn't want to admit it. Peeta Mellark, with his blond hair and blue eyes and sculptured chest and winning grin and strong jaw and dimpled chin, and that damn voice that made him sound just like a fucking Hemsworth brother…well, he was the most attractive guy she'd ever seen. And attractive guys had never led her anywhere but trouble. Especially charming, friendly, attractive guys.
It was best, all around, to try and convince herself he was the most unappealing guy in the entire world. And she only had to do so for another week and a half.
"Are you actually used to this?" Framing her eyes with her hand, Katniss shifted her gaze across to her sister, lying next to her on a bright pink beach towel. A group of them had headed down to the beach, the remainder staying back at the various vacation homes to finalise last minute Christmas plans.
"Used to what?" Prim murmured, her face and eyes covered by huge black sunglasses and a floppy, wide-brimmed hat.
"This. This weather. It's not Christmas when it's this hot. It's like…90 degrees on Christmas Eve. "
"That's 32 degrees, here," Prim reminded her, and Katniss pulled a face, causing Prim to laugh. "Of course I'm not. Not at this time of year, anyway."
"Thank God," Katniss sighed. "I thought I'd lost you to the summer Christmas."
Lifting her arms up into the air, Prim studied the bare skin. "I'm not gonna lie, it's nice not to have 30 million layers on, or worry about snow drifts or digging out the driveway, or driving to work in the slush."
"Please tell me there's a but."
Prim smiled. "But there really is nothing like a white Christmas, Kat. I miss it."
"You can always come back, you know."
With a sigh, Prim rolled over onto her side, tossed her sunglasses off onto the towel. "You know my life is here now, right?"
Katniss sighed. "I know. But it doesn't mean you'll never come back for Christmas, does it? I just…" She trailed off, unsure of what else to say without sounding completely dependent on her baby sister.
"It's weird for you without me there," Prim said softly.
"I think I'd only just gotten used to Christmas without Mom and Dad and then you left," Katniss admitted.
"Mom and Dad have been gone for a long time, Katniss." There wasn't judgment in Prim's voice, only quiet understanding. "You know they would have wanted us to start our own families and traditions. For me, that just means starting them here."
Katniss only murmured her agreement, knowing that while Prim had always been one to want to follow those wishes their parents had for them, Katniss wasn't so sold on the 'family' plan. She'd always figured she was much better suited to the title of Aunt than Mom.
"Anyway, of course we'll come back for Christmas," Prim assured her, pulling herself into a sitting position before popping to her feet. "I want my future kids to make snow angels with their Aunt Katniss." She grinned and planted a hand firmly on the top of her hat, looked out towards the water where Damian was tossing his niece over a wave, before she came up sputtering and squealing in delight. "I'm going to head in - you want to come?"
Katniss propped herself up on one elbow and shook her head, gesturing towards the smattering of beach towels and bags and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of young children. "I'll stay here, keep an eye on the stuff."
"It's okay, I'm sure Delly will be happy to come out for a bit," Prim offered.
"I'm fine," Katniss assured her. "I'll go in in a little while."
With a reluctant nod, Prim headed off to the water's edge, eagerly welcomed into the embrace of her husband. And, ignoring the faint tug of her heart at the sight of Prim having a life so different and so far from hers it was hard to comprehend, she lowered herself back to her towel and closed her eyes.
It was the smattering of droplets of water over her feet that jolted her awake, her body startling with the sudden temperature change on her warm skin.
"Wh-huh-what?" she stammered, jerking herself upright, eyes whirling around wildly as she gathered her bearings. They stopped on the body in front of her, at the bronze arms folded across a broad chest, and she felt her eyes narrow as she slowly lifted them to meet his. "What are you doing?"
"Sorry," Peeta said, sounding everything but. "I didn't realise I'd gotten you." He took a step back, shook his head so that the shining drops of water flung out from his hair in a hundred directions. Damp, it looked more of a burnished gold rather than the sun-kissed blond it usually was.
Why were guys like him always so attractive?
"You got me again," Katniss snapped, flicking at a water droplet that had landed on her leg. "Are you doing that just to piss me off?"
He shrugged, dropping to the sand in front of her, the fine, buttery coloured grains clinging to his board shorts, and to the wet hair on his legs. "I figure I can't be considered any worse than I already am, so…"
She eyeballed him for a minute, refusing to be baited, then looked away, back out towards the water. While she'd been napping - and she wasn't even sure how long she'd been out, so much for 'watching the stuff' - the group in the water had diminished, leaving only Prim, Delly and her two kids. "Where's everyone else?" She asked, her voice stiff.
"Damo, Thom, Dave and Matt are down the other end of the beach, surfing."
Tracking her gaze down the curve of sand, she could see a smattering of dark figures against the turquoise blue water, waiting for the next wave to come. "You didn't want to join them?" Please, go and join them. Leave me alone.
"I don't surf anymore."
The odd inflection in his voice, so different from the blase tone of only moments before, caused her to turn back to face him, her eyebrow lifted in curiosity. "Oh?"
He chewed down on his bottom lip for a moment, before tugging up the fabric of his shorts, baring his left knee. Across it, curving around the bone, was an ugly, snaky scar, white and faded with age. "There's no cartilage in there," he said simply. "Can't really keep my balance or twist my knee the way I used to without causing any more damage."
"What happened?" The question fell from her lips before she even realised she was asking it.
He lowered the fabric again, covering the scar. "An old footy injury from high school, when I was in grade 12. Tore it up pretty good - had to have surgery to try and fix it. I spent the entire summer laid up, couldn't go to schoolies or anything."
Katniss latched onto the one word she recognised but was still unfamiliar. "Schoolies?"
Peeta chuckled. "I guess you could liken it to your spring break, except at the end of grade 12, once you've finished school, you go away with your friends for a week, a last hurrah before you go off to uni. People tended to go to the beaches - mostly the Gold Coast, or the Sunshine Coast - though these days I know kids even go to places like Bali."
"Really? They go to Bali for that?"
He nodded. "Yep. But for me, I didn't go anywhere. Had to let the knee heal, and even then, it was never the same. Footy was out, surfing was out. "
"I'm sorry," she murmured, her gaze drawn to the scar she could no longer see.
"Sympathy get me any bonus points?" he asked flippantly, and she snapped her eyes back up to him. This time, the amusement in his was clear, and any understanding or ground they might have made up in the last few minutes fled. She folded her arms across her chest.
"No," she said firmly. "I still don't like you."
"And I still don't understand why," he sighed, then shrugged. "Anyway. You'll realise sooner or later, you're wrong."
"I won't."
"You will."
They fell into silence as they stared at each other, his eyes free of any emotion, hers - she knew - filled with frustration. It didn't take long before her stomach began to quiver, before butterflies began to take up residence inside her, before her heart did a weird slow-roll in her chest. Abruptly, she looked away, instead gazing intently out to the foamy, white-capped waves crashing at the shore.
Anywhere but at him.
Fundamentally, Christmas Day itself felt remarkably the same - presents, food, lots of Christmas carols, an abundance of Santa hats and reindeer ears.
It was just a lot hotter and way more humid.
Breakfast was up first, as they waited for the other family members to arrive. Over large platters of chilled fruit, crispy bacon and waffles, Katniss allowed the conversation between Prim, Damian, Peeta, Dave - the youngest of the Cartwright siblings - and two other cousins, to flow around her. From the kitchen, Florence Cartwright was already talking on the phone, chattering away happily and telling Delly to hurry up and get the kids over here, while Johnno walked around, trying to stop a santa hat from slipping off his glossy, balding head.
The arrival of children came complete with loud and piercing squealing over the presents laden under the tree, loud enough for Katniss to wish for some ear plugs. But it was kind of fun to watch them get excited as they tore away at the paper, as their enthusiasm rubbed off on the teenagers and adults alike. And the large living room, overflowing with more family than Katniss could poke a stick at, was practically pulsating with love.
Swallowing the large lump in her throat, Katniss excused herself and moved into the dining room, pouring herself a large glass of orange juice. She chugged it down, the liquid tart and bitter and sweet all rolled into one, while she surveyed the buffet covered in snacks and candy to get everyone through the day.
Turning back towards the doorway, she was surprised to see Peeta standing there, resting against the frame as he studied her.
"You have a habit of doing that," she said mildly. She'd told herself she needed to act civil to him today, peace and goodwill and all that crap.
But her traitorous heart was thundering like a freight train in her chest.
"Doing what?"
"Lurking."
"I wasn't lurking. I was waiting for you to turn so I didn't startle you."
Katniss shrugged, refilled her glass for something to do. "Well, whatever it is, you need to stop. I'm not interested in being friends with you. Or, you know, being a conquest. I'm not here for a vacation fling." Dammit, you're meant to be nice right now. And why are you even putting that idea in his head?
He smiled at her. "Okay, Katniss."
She blinked at his reply, so casual, so…unoffended. "What? That's all you have to say?"
"I'm not sure there's anything else I can say. You're set on this opinion of me, and that's fine. I'm just trying to be nice. I have no plans to make you a 'conquest', as you so delicately put it."
"Well….good," she huffed.
"Let's just be civil then, shall we?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
He brushed past her to the buffet of snacks, and didn't say another word.
Present opening was followed by a dozen bodies jumping in the pool, a group of guys playing poker at the outdoor table, Delly's mom and mother-in-law and two aunts huddled in the kitchen as they finished off preparing lunch. Katniss, allowing herself to get dunked numerous times by a rambunctious 8 year old, mostly felt water-logged - and guilty.
Because, for all her intentions not to, she couldn't stop looking at Peeta.
It was getting harder and harder as the day progressed, as he wandered around the large backyard in a loose tank that left his upper arms bare, the muscles in them shifting and rippling with each move he made. As he smiled and laughed with everyone, as he told a story of a recent trip to France, and the cream he'd spilled down his shirt from an eclair he'd been eating. As he patiently helped Delly's daughter zip herself into a glittery Elsa sun-vest - or rashie, as they all referred to it - and dutifully carried platters full of food to the heavily decorated tables on the back deck. It was only the glances at his cell phone throughout the day that reminded her that he was probably setting up dates for the next few days, likely with numerous women.
But it still didn't change the fact that she continued to feel that ridiculous tug of attraction, the one she'd been trying to ignore since the moment he'd stepped out that door.
And she still hated it.
The day after Christmas, it seemed, was made for three things for the extended Cartwright family - shopping, the beach, or watching cricket. And as Katniss had already been to the beach almost every day since her arrival, and generally preferred the idea of poking her eye out than going shopping, she'd turned down the invitation to hit the Boxing Day sales. She'd figured she'd give the sporting experience a try.
Until she realised that cricket was practically the most boring sport in the world. Damn, how did people watch this shit for hours on end?
By mid-afternoon she'd abandoned the group of men crowded around the wide-screen television, rueing her decision not to go the beach, and hoping that Prim would return from the mall soon. She'd lain by the pool, making a good dent in the book Florence and Johnno had given her for Christmas, before swimming a dozen laps, trying to ease the tension that had built up in her shoulders over the previous few days. And when she broke the surface, she glanced towards the house and saw Peeta inside, framed by the kitchen window as he talked on his phone. And, from the looks of things, he looked pissed.
Supremely pissed.
She climbed out from the pool, wringing the length of her braid to rid it of excess water before she snagged her towel, moving through the pool fence gate as she wrapped the fluffy material around her. At the clanging of the gate closing, Peeta looked up and caught her eye, his cheeks flushing as he did so. It was another moment before he ended the call and disappeared, before he showed up again at the sliding door.
"Give up on the cricket?" he asked blandly.
"It's boring," she blurted.
"I couldn't agree more." He dropped into one of the deck chairs, folded his hands across his stomach. "I hate it."
"Then why did you stay here? You could have gone to the beach."
He shrugged. "I had some calls to take."
She felt her eyes darken. "Of course," she muttered. Setting up dates for New Years, most likely.
Are you jealous, Katniss?
Peeta laughed mirthlessly at her response. "You really need to get over the idea that you have me pegged as a complete asshole, or ladies man, or whatever. I wasn't waiting on girls to call me. I'd been expecting some calls about a job opportunity."
"The day after Christmas? People do that?" Katniss infused her voice with all the disbelief she felt. She wasn't born yesterday - did he really think he could play her like a fool?
"Sometimes they do, yeah," he said simply. Simply enough that she found that she had no choice but to believe him.
"Well, from the looks of it, it didn't seem like the call went very well," she replied bluntly, then regretted clearly admitting that she'd been watching him through the window.
"The job call went fine." His voice was short, tight. "The call you must have seen me on was my mum."
"Your mom?" Then she remembered something Prim had mentioned, in passing, well over a year ago. How one of Damian's uncles had passed away, and his aunt by marriage - who had never gotten along with anyone in the family in all the years they'd known her - had been bitterly contesting the will, which had left everything to his three sons. She wondered if this was the same one.
"Yeah. We, uh, don't see each other any more. I thought I'd call her, olive branch and all that, but…"
"It failed," she surmised.
"Yeah, that's about right." He sighed, ran a hand across his face before looking back up at her. "My dad passed away last year, and despite the fact that my parents had been divorced for 5 years, she kind of took offence to him cutting her out of his will. She's still pissed she got nothing."
So it was him. "Money can do that to people," Katniss muttered, and he nodded.
"It sure can." He cleared his throat, looked away. "Anyway, don't you have better people to speak to than me?"
She studied him for a moment. "No," she said finally. "If it's between you, and listening to guys talk about batting stats or crap like that, you win."
"A glowing recommendation," he smirked.
"I wouldn't be too proud," she retorted, and he laughed.
"Look…I know we haven't gotten off on the right foot. But, if you can deal with me for a couple of hours, do you want to get out of here?" She inhaled sharply, ran her tongue across the front of her teeth. "Wait, not a date, or a ploy to…get into your pants, or whatever you think my aim is," he clarified. "Just get out of here. I can take you out to the lighthouse, if you haven't been there yet."
She remembered the lighthouse she'd seen high up on the cliffs from the beach over the last few days, then nodded. "Alright. Just let me get changed, and we'll go."
The smile that crept across his face was possibly the brightest thing she'd seen all day.
The company may not have been exactly what she'd wanted, but the views from the top of the hill - the ocean, the beach, the hinterland behind them, and the perfectly maintained lighthouse to their right - more than made up for it. The late afternoon sun was warm and golden, dancing across the water, the sky itself preparing for what she was expecting to be a stunning sunset.
"It's really pretty up here," she sighed, more to herself than to Peeta.
"It is," he agreed from his place on the grass beside her. There was a foot between them - generously provided by him as he'd taken a seat - but she could still sense him there as if he was sitting immediately next to her. "I come up here on my own pretty much every year. With that many people back at the house, it can be…a bit much, you know?"
"Why don't you go to one of the other houses? They rent three for everyone, don't they?"
"It's generally the same at each one," he said simply. "And sometimes you just need some time on your own."
She nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that. Most of my Christmases have been quite small, only 5 or 6 people. So this is…very, very different for me."
It was a few moments before he spoke again. "I've only been coming since Mum and Dad split," Peeta told her. "Before that, it was always just the five of us, and then my brothers girlfriends. Mum never wanted to come here, although Aunt Florence always wanted us to. Once they split, Dad started coming, and I usually joined him."
"Your brothers?"
"Married with their own kids by then. With Mum and Dad splitting, they usually spent the day with their in-laws, then caught up with ours individually on another day."
Katniss drew her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them. "And even though your dad isn't…" she trailed off, knowing how hard it was to lose a parent. "I'm sorry."
"Thanks." He coughed slightly, and Katniss wondered how raw the wound of loss for him still was. "But yeah, the last few Christmases here were some of my dad's favourite, and we had a great time, so I figured I'd continue with it. It's always a lot of fun with Damo and Delly and the rest."
"Even though he shit stirs you," Katniss replied wryly, and his smile was sheepish.
"It's our way of showing we love each other, or whatever." He leant back, resting on his elbows. "But while I've got you here, with no other way of getting home other than the hire car that, insurance wise, you're not allowed to drive-"
"I can call a cab."
"Good luck with that one today. But while I've got you here," he repeated, "And you've raised the topic of shit stirring, I feel like I need to clarify a few things with you that might maybe change your mind about me. I don't like people not liking me for no reason."
"I don't need my mind changing," she said firmly.
"Let me try anyway."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine."
He cleared his throat dramatically, kept his sunglass-shaded eyes focused on the ocean ahead. "I've had two serious girlfriends - one in uni, one since. The guys all like to tease me about this, about the fact that I'm a long-term kind of guy, by jokingly calling me a ladies man. They've been doing it for years, for as long as I can remember. I've never picked up a random girl in my life, let alone dated dozens of them. And the girl who I walked out of the airport with? She was coming up here to visit her great-aunt, and I was giving her directions. That's all. The delay at baggage claim was real."
Katniss waited a beat before replying. "That's your grand story to try and change my mind about you? You're not afraid of commitment, so they tease you? Puh-lease. Half your cousins are married."
He moved his shoulders in a slight shrug. "Hey, if what they did made sense, they wouldn't do it - that's my family for you. If I've got no stories to tell, I have nothing to explain."
"Then what about all their comments about you being a charmer and blah blah blah?"
This time, he grinned. "Oh, I can't argue with them there. I know I'm charming, I can't help that. But charming doesn't mean that I'm a…what did you call me?"
Her lips pressed together. "A player."
"Right. A player." He said the word as though it were filled with amusement. "I've slept with very few women in my life, Katniss. I'm pretty sure that's not a player."
She choked on her own breath. "Shit, Peeta, we're virtually strangers, I don't need to hear about that."
"Well, maybe now you'll believe me."
Katniss shook her head, buried her face in her knees. "I really don't care."
"Obviously you do, seeing as you took such an instant dislike to me."
She turned her head so that she was facing him, her cheek still pressed against her knee cap. "I told you I'd met too many guys like you before, who'd duped my friends, my roommates, people I went to college with…even me. Guys who liked to charm their way into your life, and into your bed, and then not even wave goodbye the next day. So I tend not to let people like that into my life. Even if they are family, in some long, roundabout way."
"But now you know I'm not like that."
Yeah, now she knew he wasn't like that. Dammit.
"Yeah, yeah, okay, I was wrong," she sighed. "But can you blame me? The first time I met you, Damian was talking you up like you're a regular Don Juan."
"I love him, but he's full of shit."
"He's married to my sister," Katniss reminded him.
"He's full of shit, but he loves your sister," he amended, and she laughed.
"He damn well better. He dragged her halfway around the world."
"Dragged her?"
"Well…no, she wanted to come."
"But you miss her."
She shrugged, glad for the sunglasses she wore that hid the way her eyes had grown wet. "Yeah. I do. But it's what she wanted, so that's what's important."
"Do you know what you want?"
Katniss screwed up her nose. "I don't know what you mean."
"Prim wanted Damian, and a life here. What about you?"
She shifted awkwardly because, at 27, she still didn't know, and hated not knowing - and she had no intention of telling him that. "Well, what about you? What's with this job offer you referred to earlier?"
Taking the hint that she didn't want to share, Peeta lifted himself back up so that he was sitting, curving one arm around his bent knee. "I was waiting to see if an exhibition of mine was going to be picked up."
"An exhibition?"
"I'm an artist, a painter," he admitted. "I've had a few small gigs, but this one was going to be at a well-known gallery in Sydney - a pretty big deal if I got it."
"Oh. I had no idea."
"I don't really talk about it too much."
"Why not?"
Peeta shrugged. "Let's just say my mum was pissed I didn't become a lawyer. Or a banker. Or anything with a steady income."
"I don't think I like your mom."
"Not many people do."
"Anyway," she cleared her throat. "Did you get it?"
She could see the curve of his cheek rise before his mouth moved, and then his smile was blinding. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."
"Then good for you."
"Thanks." He shifted slightly, straightening even more. "So, you think we can put all that stuff behind us, start over?"
She shrugged, allowed herself one minute to play indifferent before replying with a faint smile. "Yeah, I think we can."
They both looked away, out to the sun that was slowly beginning to set, sending the sky blazing with orange and gold and red and yellow, setting the water below on fire.
"This is my favourite time of day," he murmured, and she turned to face him, the question of why clear on her face. "The colours of the sunset? It's one of the most beautiful things I've seen. It never fails to amaze me."
Katniss tried to stop from staring at him, but she couldn't.
She really had no reason not to.
This was stupid. She was a grown woman. She was on vacation, half way around the world. It was not the time or place for her to have silly, pointless crushes on guys that lived on a different continent.
It would have been much better if she'd never spoken to him, and she'd kept on thinking he was a ladies man. Because knowing he wasn't made her intentions of ignoring her attraction to him all the more harder.
Every day, her guard continued to fall, and she interacted with him more. Stayed up late by the pool, talking into the night about the most ridiculous things, and the most important things, they could think of. They went for walks along the headland, teamed up in a reluctant game of charades that they failed bitterly at, laughed as Katniss was officially crowned the worst person after a game of Cards Against Humanity.
He would touch the back of her hand when trying to get her attention, his palm would rest on the small of her back as they moved out of their way of other walkers on the trails. He'd tug playfully on the end of her braid, would brush his body close to hers if they passed each other moving in and out of the kitchen. And in the pool…well, she had to admit that she spent most of her time trying not to stare at his bare chest, or at the arms she now knew he worked on in the gym meticulously to help him through the hours upon hours of bringing canvases to life.
But if Prim shot them curious looks, or if Damian made a flippant remark, or if Florence and Johnno grinned to each other when Katniss and Peeta walked into a room together, she ignored them.
It didn't matter if she was growing more and more attracted to him as time passed. In three days, she'd be on a plane back to the US. And her two weeks in Australia, and the blond-haired, blue-eyed painter, would be nothing but a distant memory.
Back home, she imagined she'd be arguing with Madge right about now, refusing to go out, while Madge insisted she join her and their other girlfriends in celebrating the dawn of the new year. Katniss would undoubtedly be reminding her that Gale would end up tagging along, and Johanna would pick up some random guy and Katniss would end up in the corner, nursing a beer and watching the ball in New York City drop on the television.
So the idea that no one had plans to go out, and that New Years would be celebrated at the house, made her far happier than what the announcement probably should have made her. She could wear baggy shorts and a sloppy tank and not even worry about make-up.
It was perfect.
Fairy lights and paper lanterns had been strung up around the backyard, around the small balinese-style hut that sat beside the pool, twisted around the fence, hung in ropes from the roof of the deck. It made it look fun, festive, like the entire yard was twinkling with stars.
And then Peeta stepped out onto the deck, and nothing else seemed to matter.
Shit, she was acting like a dumbstruck teenager. It was ridiculous.
"Hey Katniss," he greeted, walking down the few short steps to the lawn in front of the pool, where she stood.
"Peeta," she replied quietly.
His eyebrows knitted together. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Of course I am, why?"
"You just…" he shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You look great."
She looked down at her cut-off jean shorts, the deep green tank she wore. The make-up free face she now wished she'd played up a little with some mascara and lipgloss. Great? Hardly.
"Those smooth, charming words," she rolled her eyes.
"I don't say things I don't mean, Katniss," he said, his tone lowering.
"If you say so," she said blithely.
"I do." He reached out, trailed a hand down the length of her braid, quickly tugging his hand back when her gaze dropped to the movement. "Sorry."
She shook her head. "No. It's okay. Don't…don't be sorry."
He opened his mouth to speak again, but a barrage of voices came from inside, spilling out onto the deck, and they jumped apart almost guiltily. She was surprised at how closely they'd drawn together as they'd spoken.
Was surprised at how much she hated the interruption.
The food, again, was plentiful. Fruit and chocolate and grilled vegetables and snags on the barbie, as Dave had yelled out at her teasingly. Champagne and beer and soda had overflowed, and by the time it hit ten, the kids were passed out on the outdoor sofa, their demands to see midnight gone in a chocolate and soda coma. She'd chatted with Prim, with Delly, even with Delly's mother in law. She'd played a game of bocce on the lawn, had tried to pace herself with the champagne.
Except every time she looked at Peeta, she had to take another sip to force her attention away from him. And by 11.30, she felt like she was about to pass out.
Dammit, Johanna was right. She was such a lightweight.
Excusing herself for some fresh air, she walked around the garden to the far side of the pool, the air and short walk already doing wonders for clearing her head. Lowering herself to the ground, she leant back on her palms, tipped her head up to the sky and looked at the stars, bright and luminescent in the inky darkness. She wondered if she'd take a moment at this time of year back home to stare up at the stars, and knew that she wouldn't.
Stars were for dreamers, and she was a realist.
"Well, hey there." His voice came out of the darkness before he did, and she glanced over to see Peeta strolling across the grass. He crouched down beside her. "You alright? I saw you walk off and figured I'd come check on you…"
She smiled, a little lopsidedly, her stomach doing a little turn at the thought of him watching her. "I just…I think I drank a little too much champagne. Should have left it for midnight."
Peeta laughed. "Ah well. What's a little indulgence at new years?"
"Not a good idea, that's what it is."
"You feeling alright now?"
"Yeah, much better. I should probably go back."
He rose to his feet and reached out a hand, offering it to her. "Here, I'll help you up."
Nodding, she reached up to clasp her hand in his, allowing him to draw her to her feet. At the last moment, she stumbled, the corner of her flip flop catching on a rock, and she fell against him, her face pressing into his chest. His free hand immediately went to her waist to steady her, sliding under the thin material of her shirt in the process. She gasped, and her head jerked back, the feeling of his skin on hers searing.
"Katniss?" His voice was deep, lower than she'd ever heard it before.
"Yeah?" she glanced up as she tried to steady herself, but he wouldn't let go of her hand - or her waist.
"Are you alright?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, why?"
He waited a moment before responding. "Because you know we're avoiding the inevitable. We have been for days," he murmured.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
"No I don't."
He sighed, letting go of her hand and tipping up her chin with his finger. "You know how beautiful you are, right?"
She rolled her eyes, even as she tried in vain to keep the blush from appearing on her cheeks. "No."
"You are. You're…no, you're better than beautiful. You're radiant."
"You're full of shit."
"I'm really not."
"It sounds like something a ladies man would say."
Peeta's eyes twinkled in amusement. "Maybe you're right. I'm pretty good at it. Rumour has it I've had plenty of practice." He took another step closer to her, close enough that she could feel the heat emanating from his body. "You know we're avoiding the inevitable…because we both want each other."
"No I don't." Yes I do.
"That's a lie."
"No it isn't."
"It is. You know what isn't a lie?" He paused, and she held her breath as she waited for him to speak. "I really want to kiss you, Katniss."
She closed her eyes. "No you don't." Please.
"Yes I do."
"But-"
"No buts."
"We really shouldn't," she murmured, even as his hand came up to cup her cheek, his fingers spreading across her skin and diving into her hair. "I really shouldn't."
"Why not?" he whispered, and she opened her eyes again.
"I go home in two days, that's why."
Peeta shook his head. "That's not a good enough reason for me. You need to give me another reason not to kiss you right now."
Shrouded by the thick hedges separating the back of the pool and the rest of yard, Katniss felt like she and Peeta were the only two people there - the sounds of music and talking had faded away, only the faint lights tracking through the greenery remaining.
"We just…we shouldn't. We're family."
He bit down on his lower lip in an effort not to laugh. "Hardly. That's an even worse excuse, Katniss."
"I-"
"Just give up. Can you really give me a reason to not kiss you?"
She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "No," she finally muttered, and he swooped on her answer before she'd barely finished it, like he'd been waiting for years for her answer.
Maybe he had.
His mouth tasted like the cherries they'd been gorging on all night, and cinnamon and the faint addition of champagne. It was a heady mix, one that intoxicated her almost as much as the feeling of his lips against hers.
His hands cupped her cheeks, pulling her in close, his teeth dragging against her bottom lip, drawing a low groan from the back of her throat. Her hands clenched at his hips, her fingers digging in underneath the fabric of his t-shirt, curving over the band of his shorts.
And then he shifted his head, deepening the kiss, and every thought she'd had flew from her head.
Peeta lowered his hands, gliding them over her shoulders, down her arms until he wrapped his own around her waist, dragging her body against his; she felt every plane, every angle, every slight curve of each of them pressed against each other. And she wasn't sure anything had ever felt more right in her life.
"I've wanted to do this since the moment I stepped through that door the day I arrived," he muttered, his mouth moving from hers to blaze a trail across her jaw, down to the junction below her ear. "I was a goner from that moment." She shivered, the feeling of his mouth against the sensitive skin sending her pulse racing.
"I wanted you to, but I didn't want you to," she admitted, and he laughed, the rumble of his chest echoing against hers. His lips continued to work against her skin, and with every touch, she could swear her body felt like it was turning molten.
But it still wasn't enough.
Impatiently, she lifted her own hand, gripping onto the back of his head, twisting some of the blond strands around her fingers, drawing his mouth back and covering it hotly with hers. Her hips instinctively plunged against his, the feeling of him long and hard against her belly sending a pulse straight to her core, and both of them moaned.
But it didn't stop them, their mouths eagerly devouring each other, a tangle of lips and tongues and teeth and a heady need that Katniss knew she'd never experienced - and likely never would again.
Eventually Peeta pulled away reluctantly, rested his forehead against hers. His breathing was erratic, his heart pounding a million miles an hour against her chest. "Shit, Katniss. I…I can't. If we keep going like this, I'm going to need to take us inside, and with about 30 million rellies we'd have to walk past, I'm not keen on explaining where we're going and why." She laughed, choking back the sound so they didn't draw any attention. "What's so funny?"
"The word rellies is funny," she told him, her eyes full of amusement, even as her heart continued to pound in her chest. But she felt it, knew the moment the primal need they'd both been feeling banked, and simmered. Which was exactly what she'd been looking for when she'd said it.
Because he was right. Whatever they were thinking, whatever they were feeling, now was not the time to try and explain it to 20 inquisitive sets of eyes.
"What can I say?" Peeta grinned. "We could spend all night dissecting the differences in your English to my English. But…"
"But?"
"But I'd rather just do this again," he murmured, and lowered his mouth to hers.
The clock struck twelve, but neither of them noticed.
It was tough, wanting to strip the clothes off the cousin of your brother-in-law when a significant portion of his family was around.
It was even tougher knowing that, in less than 48 hours, she wasn't likely to ever see him again.
But knowing that was the only thing that stopped her from creeping into his room later that night, and doing the one thing she wanted to.
Because she wasn't sure if she could handle it only ever being for one time.
They spent the next day on the beach on the other side of the lighthouse, the area surprisingly deserted for the time of day and year. No one had questioned them when they said they were taking one of the cars to head out for the day, nothing but Prim's knowing, but worried, smile in response. Katniss had simply shaken her head, let her know it was okay, that she was okay.
And then she'd threaded her fingers through Peeta's and he'd led her out to the car.
They'd gone out no further than ankle deep in the water - Peeta stoutly refused to go in any deeper without the flags to indicate where to swim - instead sitting in the shallows, allowing the water to wash over their laps as they talked of their families. The loss of their parents, the fractured relationship Peeta had with his mother. His hopes to have his exhibition go beyond Sydney, and enable him to show in galleries overseas. Her disappointment that she still didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, only that she got more joy out of hiking in the woods near her home than going into her office and writing policies all day. When she'd joined the forestry department, she hadn't exactly figured she'd be stuck inside being a paper pusher. Yet, that's what she'd become.
She told him of Cato, the guy who'd charmed his way into her bed and danced out of it so easily. He told her of the girlfriend who'd left him high and dry when she'd finally realised the life of luxury she'd expected from an artist wasn't reality.
They sat on oversized beach towels, ate ham and cheese sandwiches, munched on pretzels and cherries and slices of watermelon they'd pilfered from the fridge.
But they kissed more than anything else, kisses full of desire and need and a desperation, knowing that today was all they had.
"Do we, though?"
"Hmm?" Katniss turned to face him lazily, his voice breaking the silence that had enveloped them as they dozed in the sun. "Do we what?"
"Only have today?"
Her cheeks pinkened, the realisation that the thoughts that had been running through her mind all of the afternoon had somehow been spoken aloud in her daydreaming.
"Of course," she said softly. "I leave first thing in the morning, and I'll go back to work. You'll go back to Sydney, start your exhibition. We'll hear of each other through Prim, and…" This was exactly why you never had vacation romances, why you never gave into those kisses deep in the night. Because it never ended well.
Yet she kept on kissing him.
"I don't want that, though," Peeta told her.
She swallowed heavily. "What do you want, then?"
"I want…I want to give this a chance."
She blinked. "We've known each other for barely two weeks!"
"So?" He lifted himself up on one elbow, turned on his side to face her. "Prim and Damian knew each other for less than a month, but they knew."
"Is this you proposing?" she snorted, but she wasn't sure what the feeling was in her chest that accompanied her question.
Peeta grinned. "No. But…I've never felt for anyone what I've managed to feel for you in the last two weeks, even when you hated me. No one has ever made me want more like you have. You're surly, and abrupt and-"
"Is this supposed to be winning me over?"
"But you love so fiercely, and you're so protective and giving, even though you wouldn't say you were. You're funny and sharp and smart…All of that together makes a combo that I find hard to resist. And you're- you're radiant, remember?" He ran a hand across the back of his neck, in what she'd come to recognise over the last few days as a nervous gesture. "But no, I'm not proposing. Though I think I'd like to maybe give us the chance to find out if it could be something more." He took a quick glance at her face, and whatever he saw there had him faltering. "Or, uh, I guess we could at least be friends."
Katniss closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Would it be so bad to try and see what could happen between them? It wasn't like there was anyone beating down her door back home, and…and Peeta was the only guy she'd ever met who'd had this type of impact on her. One that made her want to consider the impossibility of something like this. One that made her think that trying to see if you were compatible with someone with an ocean between them was worth trying.
"I'm not very good at being friends," she finally murmured as she opened her eyes, and this time, what he saw must have settled his nerves - his own shoulders relaxed, his face cleared of worry.
"I guess I'm not sure I could be very good at just being friends with you, anyway."
It was the timbre of his voice that made her stomach quiver, that made any final resolve she might have had to say no, crumble. "We could give it a try."
He smiled, and the dimple at the bottom of his chin popped out. "I like the sound of that," he said softly, reaching over and squeezing her fingers. "And you know, I think I'd like to see a white Christmas one day," he added tentatively.
"Maybe…maybe you should see one," she agreed.
"Maybe I should." He reached out a hand, tucked a loose, sandy strand of hair behind her ear. "So what are you doing next year?"
The corner of Katniss' mouth lifted. "If he plays his cards right, maybe playing host to a painter from Australia."
Peeta shifted on the towel, drawing her close and sliding his foot between hers, tangling their legs together. "That sounds like a plan," he murmured, and fused his mouth to hers.
A/N - I'd had no intentions of writing anything this holiday season - after a super crazy busy period at work, the inspiration and desire to write had all but fled. But…well, the muse is an odd and fickle beast, and it hits you when you least expect it, lol. Plus, I realised that I'd never actually written an Australian!Peeta, and how could I not? In the end, it got a little out of hand and ended up not so much a drabble, but as this.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, my friends, I hope you have a wonderful 2016. Thank you for reading :)