"Why are you so nervous?" Katniss Everdeen looked over at her boyfriend Peeta Mellark, trying to smile but his bouncing leg putting her own nerves on edge and causing her scowl to deepen.
Peeta turned his face toward her and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Me? Nervous? Pfffft!"
They stayed in this little standoff of sorts, her scowling at him, he fake smiling at her, leg bouncing, until finally one of them broke. "Fine! Fine!" Peeta said in exasperation, throwing his hands up in surrender. "I'm nervous. You happy now? I admit it. I'm nervous. I, Peeta Mellark am nervous."
The smile finally winning over, Katniss reached over and grabbed his hand now in his lap and he stared at it and held it tight, as if he were a balloon that would fly away if he let go. A lopsided smile started up the side of his face as she ran her thumb over his knuckles, her own grin growing when she saw his dimple appear. He looked out the window of the train, as if summoning courage, then turned back to meet her eyes. "What if he doesn't approve?"
Katniss threw her head back and laughed a deep, low laugh, ending with a snort that made Peeta chuckle. "What? It's not funny!"
"Yes, it is!" She said, still slightly laughing. "I could care less if he doesn't approve. Sure, dad told him, 'Take care of my girls, Hawthorne'," she said, imitated a deep man's voice making Peeta smile again, "right before he breathed his last, but that shouldn't worry you."
Peeta looked at his girlfriend as if she had just told him she was really a unicorn. "You…. You are crazy."
"But that's why you love me."
"Well, maybe, but you know me. If he says no, it's the same as if your father said no and I couldn't bring myself to betray that, especially knowing how much he meant to you."
Despite his stubbornness, Katniss felt tears prick the back of her eyes and she reached up to cup his cheek with her hand. He leaned into it, his eyes closed and a contented sigh passing through his lips before they closed in a contented grin.
"Don't worry. I've got your back," she whispered. "Remember, we protect each other. It's what we do."
Peeta's grin grew once again to meet his eyes. "Are you even real?"
"Oh yes," she said coyly. "Very."
X-X-X
Katniss rang the door bell as Peeta clutched her hand like a lifeline and bounced on his toes.
She put her hand gently on his shoulder, but he kept bouncing as he turned to meet her eyes. So she pushed down firmly, holding him to the ground.
"Peeta. Don't worry. It's cute, but stop. Please. If he says no, just remember, Prim is engaged to his little brother and I will just get info to blackmail him. As if I didn't have enough already from our childhood…."
"Katniss, no!"
"Fine, fine. I'll just tell him I need some target practice and to stand with an apple on his head-"
"Kat-"
Just then the front door opened and a squeal that could only belong to Prim met their ears. She rushed through the door to hug them both at the same time and looking over her shoulder, they saw Gale standing in the doorway, arms crossed, face as broody as ever.
"Catnip," Gale smiled, but his voice was cold as he wrapped Katniss in a hug.
Then, turning to Peeta, the smile vanished and his voice grew colder. "Peeta Mellark." He offered his hand for a hand shake, which Peeta readily offered. He tried not to wince when Gale squeezed so tightly his knuckles turned white and Peeta's fingers turned blue.
X-X-X
Gale seemed to be appraising Peeta all day, and Katniss did not like it at all. She ended up giving him the cold shoulder for the majority of the visit.
Nearing the end of the day, Gale walked up and stood in front of Peeta, holding out a bottle of beer. Peeta looked from the bottle to Gale's face towering above where he sat in a chair. "Mind if we go talk outside for a bit?"
Peeta tried to hide his obvious gulp of fear. "Sure." He stood up, took the bottle and followed Gale out the back door.
He quickly realized it was a pop top bottle and asked Gale for a bottle opener.
Gale just took the bottle from him, lined the edge of the cap up with the railing of the porch, and yanked down, pulling the cap off. He handed it back to Peeta with a small smile.
"Thanks," Peeta muttered.
Gale took a long pull from the bottle, staring out into the woods around the house, and shook his head and started laughing.
"What?" Peeta asked, smiling along but completely lost.
"Nothing, man, it's just…." Gale looked at his shoes than back out to the woods. "You know Catn- Katniss and I used to date?"
"She may have mentioned it."
"Yeah. Well, we, uh, we were inseparable growing up, and it just sort of happened and we realized we were better as friends. Her dad had to talk us down out of more fights than he ought to have."
Peeta didn't know how to respond, so he just looked out into the woods, too.
"When he, uh…. Died, when he died he asked me to make sure she found the right guy. He knew I would watch over her like he would. He was like my dad, too. But I just kept hoping, that maybe she and I could find a way to make it work. Us. Make us work," he finally looked at Peeta, meeting his eyes.
"And after watching her today, seeing how she looks at you. How you make her smile…. I only made her smile when I would trip on something, or go hunting with her, and even when she was hunting, I'm sure it was because of where she was, not because I was there."
"Gale, I'm sure she-"
"No, no, Mellark. It's okay. We're friends, and I'm okay with that. She deserves to smile like that. All the time. At little things, at nothing at all. She deserves to be happy."
Peeta didn't want to seem too giddy at the direction this conversation was going, so he hid his smile with a draw of the beer.
"And she never kissed me like that."
Peeta spat out his beer, causing Gale to recoil quickly. Both men made eye contact and started laughing.
"You, uh, you got a little something on your chin…."
"Yeah," Peeta chuckled. "Yeah, I got that." He wiped his chin on his sleeve.
After a companionable silence, while holding each others gaze, Gale walked up to Peeta and patted him on the back.
"Peeta, to quote Mr. Everdeen, "Son, you have my permission to date my daughter. But-"
"But?"
"Don't interrupt me, young man! But, if you break her heart, you best have a second identity and passport ready to go, and pray that I don't find you."
"Mr. Everdeen really told you to say that?"
Gale smiled and looked back to the woods as he held his bottle to his lips, smiling into the lip of the bottle as he spoke. "Not in so many words." He pulled the last of his bottle and turned to walk into the house. "I may have improvised a little at the end."