She was 12 when she met Gale Hawthorn. Peeta watched as she entered the school with a spring in her step, Cheeks slightly flushed from happiness. He knew then that he'd lost his chance, he clenched his fists, wishing that he'd gathered the nerve to talk to her. But like her mother he could tell that Katniss Everdeen would fall in love with a boy with grey eyes.
When she was thirteen, seeing them together was a common affair and Peeta had gained hope, they were friends, just friends. That didn't stop him from being he could make her smile.
When she was 14, Gale noticed that his best friend was a girl. Peeta noticed him noticing and tried to hide his fear of what was to come. Knowing he would lose what he had never had.
By the age of fifteen she was against the idea of marriage. Peeta hoped she changed her mind. The idea of her being alone for her life was Worse then the idea of being with someone other than himself.
When she was sixteen, he paniced at the idea of her being reaped, and knew, if she was , then he would volienteer to protect her. Not that she needed protection.
She wasn't reaped, he was. He sought out her face in the crowd and saw a look of pain flash across her face before being covered by an emotionless mask. In that moment, he knew he would win, and when he came back he would win her heart, he had to.
He did win, but he wasn't the same. He sunk into a depression that no one could snap him out of. Until she came. Shifting from foot to foot when Haymitch opened the door she half asked half mumbled if she could see Peeta. The old drunk looked at her measuringly before shrugging and giving her entry. She entered Peeta's room where he sat, curled in a ball with blank eyes and sat in front of him, just looking at him. Then, slipping a hand into her pocket, she pulled out a pill.
"for you're depression, my mother takes them." she dropped the pill into his hand then got to her feet and left.
She visited every day for a long time, talking to him softly, watching as he became his old self, when he finally managed to speak again he asked why she had helped him and her answer made him smile,
"you saved my life once, it was duty to return the favour!" but even when he had fully recovered, she still visited. Delivering pills and game, talking to him. It was a while before he remembered what he promised himself before the games, to win her heart.
Two years later Gale proposed to her. She refused, the first person she came to was Peeta. Knocking on his door in the victors village at 6:00 in the morning, tears streaming down her face. He embraced her tightly, never wanting to let go but knowing he had to, because her views on marriage obviously hadn't changed. He was about to pull away when she looked up at him, a wierd look passing her face. She stood on her toes and kissed him briefly on the lips. It was soft and full of unspoken feeling, then she whispered he words he never thought he'd hear fom her lips,
"I think I love you." the responding words formed naturally in his mouth, as though his soul reason for excistence was to reply,
"I love you too Katniss Everdeen."
Three years later, there was a rebellion. Peeta and Katniss Mellark were two of district 13's strongest fighters and, many years later, their children were raised in a world where they no longer had to fear for their lives.