Tending to the Fire

"Peeta!" My mother's rough voice pierced through another of my daily reveries. "Bake the bread already, will ya?"

I blinked a few times and tried to shake off my daydream. I don't have to tell you who I was daydreaming about, do I?

As I whipped around to grab my apron from the countertop, I saw two hungry eyes staring into the bakery. There she was! Not in a daydream, but alive and in flesh! But she looked so frail and deteriorated, like all that was left of her were skin and bones.

And besides the fact that you could count her ribs (one, two, three, four...), but you could visibly see starvation in her eyes. She must not have eaten a substantial meal in days. Not to mention her family.

"Stop staring and leave, girl!" My mother shooed her away. "If I get another brat from the Seam hanging around the bakery hoping to snag some free food, I'm gonna call the Peacekeepers in!"

Katniss dragged herself off and my mother smiled as she shooed the poor girl away.

I sighed at my mother's cruelty and decided that I had to take matters into my own hands.

I 'accidentally' dropped the bread I was going to bake into the fire. I managed to grab them out before they got too charred to eat, but not fast enough to escape getting a beating from my mother.

As her hand smacked itself across my cheek, and I knew the bruise was going to be tattooed across my face for weeks. I winced in pain, but I knew it was worth it. How could I ever cope if Katniss died?

"Now feed the bread you burnt to the pigs." Mother rasped. "Lousy son burning bread," she muttered as I walked out to the stables.

I could feel Katniss' eyes on me as I peeled the burnt edges off and threw them to the pigs. But I didn't want to meet her gaze because... because why?

Because she was starving and I hated seeing her so frail and limp? Because I had just gotten punished and my pride was too wounded to look at her straight in the eyes? Or was it because I just liked her so much, that I just got nervous around her?

It was the third, most definitely.

As I tossed her the bread without any eye contact, I could hear her eagerly scramble to claim the loaves. I smiled to myself, but bit my lip.

Nothing's ever going to happen between me and her. It just doesn't happen. She's from the Seam, and I'm from the market. But even then... Why would a girl like her fall for a guy like me?

I shook away the thought as I reentered the bakery. Even though it was warm and smelled delicious in here, the only place I wanted to be was right next to her.