Banner by the outstanding akai-echo!
Now on AO3 / ffnet
Summary: (In-Panem AU) Peeta stands to inherit the bakery, but his mother won't sign the papers until he is officially engaged to a proper Merchant class girl. So Katniss enlists the help of her best friends Madge and Gale, who can just barely stand each other, to fake date and go on double dates so they can be together. Things get complicated when it's time to plan the wedding. A fic in six parts.
Prompt submitted by mylionskitten for the Everlark fix Exchange, hosted by the most talented javistg. Thank you, my friend!
Part 4 - The Engagement
Peeta cleared his throat, putting on a smile that was both bright and false. Anyone who knew him knew he was switching on the charm. Katniss didn't know what it is he thought was worth smiling about but she suddenly found it hard to think, every sound muffled by the sound of her heart hammering in her chest.
"Well, we didn't want to spoil the surprise but...Madge just agreed to marry me," Peeta exclaimed proudly.
"What?" Gale blurted out.
"We were going to tell you later but I guess Mom beat us to it," Peeta said, giving Gale a curious look, as if begging him to play along. Gale cast a glance at Madge, whose eyes had gone wide as saucers. Katniss meanwhile was sure that she'd finally end up on the ground and leaned against Gale for support. She knew it might come to this but she still wasn't prepared to hear the words spoken out loud. At precisely that moment, Mayor Undersee and his wife made their appearance.
"I...I agreed. I...said...yes…" Madge
"What did you agree to, dear?" Mrs. Undersee asked her daughter while the Mayor greeted the older women whose attention was now fixed on Peeta and Madge.
"Look at those crazy kids. Worn out from all that dancing. Hello, Mrs. Abernathy, Mrs. Wilkins," he paused when he addressed Peeta's mother, "Mrs. Mellark."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Mrs. Undersee repeated, her voice gentle and airy but with an undertone of firmness. "You said yes to what, Madge?"
Katniss's heart broke for her friend now. One thing was to pretend to be dating before acquaintances or even friends. It was another thing altogether to be forced to tell someone close to her a lie in such a public way. Katniss made to step forward, to stop the entire farce once and for all but Gale held her back.
"Peeta and I are engaged…" Madge said quietly, a forced smile that was much less spontaneous than that of Peeta's gracing her now pale face.
"Really?" Mrs. Undersee said in shock. "It's rather...I mean...congratulations…."
"Yes, oh yes!" Mrs. Mellark leapt up from where she sat. She'd dressed for the occasion - done her hair, makeup and even wore a dress that, had she been anyone else, would have rendered her pretty. "What a wonderful thing, don't you think, Marianne?" She hugged a stunned Mrs. Undersee, before turning her attention to Madge and finally Peeta, all of whom stiffly returned her effusions. "We'll be family now!" she continued as she finally embraced the Mayor.
"Yes, I guess we will be!" Mr. Undersee said good-naturedly, though his gaze lingered on Peeta and Madge, as if he were trying to solve a mystery. "Come, let's go up to the house and celebrate this occasion!" He put his arm around Peeta as he walked while Mrs. Undersee and Mrs. Mellark flanked Madge.
Katniss and Gale stood for a moment, staring after the group until Madge turned and beckoned towards them. "Aren't you coming?"
Mrs. Mellark interjected quickly before Katniss could answer. "Oh, dear, you are so sweet! But this is a family event. Surely they can come by for a visit tomorrow with your other friends to wish you well!"
Peeta, who, despite his smile, appeared to be in a daze, woke from his stupor to speak but the older gentleman squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sure you will see them tomorrow," he said jovially, stopping to turn towards Katniss and Gale. "Give my regards to both your mothers. I believe I saw them together earlier near the dance area," he said.
Katniss pasted a false smile of her own on her face, one that must have looked maniacal. Peeta nodded once imperceptibly, which gave her courage and calmed her somewhat but did nothing to make her feel any less awful.
"Come on, Catnip," Gale said gloomily and it was only then that Katniss realized his distress also.
"You okay?" she said, suddenly worried about her long-time friend, though her stomach was tied up in knots over the events of the evening.
"Yeah...well, no," he said, still staring at the group even after the darkness had hidden them from view.
"Why would he do that!" she burst out finally when she was sure they could no longer be heard. "You heard her! Now the old witch definitely won't sign the bakery over to him until he marries Madge! Why didn't he try to buy some time…?"
"No, he did the right thing. It was risky, I'll grant you that, but it was the right thing to do. She forced his hand so now, he's bringing it all to a head. He's tired of it," Gale glanced down at Katniss, who could not believe his words. "Aren't you tired of all the pretending?"
Katniss scowled but now that the shock had worn off, she had not choice to agree with him. Mrs. Mellark had pulled her queen out from behind her pawns and cornered Peeta by making her statement public. His only choice was to either fold or counterattack, so he had chosen the boldest move available to him. She understood it. But it didn't make it easier to swallow.
"I think I just want to go home," Katniss said, knowing she wouldn't sleep.
"Yeah," was Gale's only answer. The look at his face told her he would spend the whole night stewing about it also.
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Katniss spent the next few days in a haze of anxious loneliness. Gale had his shifts at the mines, Peeta was at the bakery, and Mrs. Mellark was suddenly Madge's best friend, leaving Katniss with her small family and her sister's mangy cat as her only company. It was already warm - summer would be intense this year, which made hunting too late in the day particularly unenjoyable.
Katniss suffered the most from her compulsive thoughts. There was no way around it. Mrs. Mellark has solidified her conditions. An engagement would no longer suffice. She would have her wedding or Peeta would lose everything. And she couldn't stop the refrain that kept going around and around in her head - that she was sure she was to blame for it all. If she had just been a little more mindful of herself...
Peeta arranged to have all four of them meet at the lake on Saturday, something which Katniss looked forward to with no small amount of apprehension. She'd seen the marriage announcement on the bans outside of the Justice Building for the following week. Maybe they'd gotten married already. Would Peeta take things that far? She struggled to maintain her composure as Peeta appeared on the lake bank, hurrying towards her as if he hadn't just had a public engagement the week before with her best friend. She smiled nervously when Madge and Gale soon followed, speaking in low but animated tones between them.
"I'm sorry...Mom's been in rare form and I haven't had a minute to myself," Peeta complained, pulling Katniss into his arms, seeking her lips out to kiss her but Katniss dodged him, hoping instead for an explanation.
"Yeah, I've had more of your mom than I ever needed to have," Madge interjected as Gale set a large basket down by the lake front.
"That's what you get for getting engaged to that lump," Gale groused, earning a wry look from Peeta.
"Katniss, you don't know the fun you have in store for you when Mrs. Mellark becomes your mother-in-law," Madge continued, laying a large blanket out.
Katniss listened to everyone's banter, her heart pounding with both relief and rising anger at the three of them. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore and burst out, "Why the hell are you guys making jokes at a time like this!"
Everyone looked up abruptly at Katniss, as if she had become a mental case which, with all the stress she'd been under, she very well might be.
"You try spending a week with Mrs. Mellark, planning your supposed wedding, and tell me if you don't need to have a laugh!" Madge blurted out. "No offense, Peeta."
"None taken. But let's go easy on Katniss. She doesn't know."
"Doesn't know what?" she demanded, losing her patience with all of them, even Gale, who should know better than to sit on the bank with that smug look on his face and tease her in the state she was in. She was ready to throttle all of them and disappear into the woods. "I saw the marriage announcement! This has gotten out of control!"
"Oh that? Look, I'd do anything for you, but I draw the line at fake-marriage. You have to understand that," Madge said dryly.
"That's right," Gale scowled. "I don't think anyone would expect that. It would be a bit much, wouldn't it?" he asked rhetorically.
"No," Peeta said finally, scooping up his backpack. "No one could ever expect such a thing." He turned towards Katniss, extending a hand to her, his brilliant blue eyes suddenly bright with emotion. "Walk with me and let me talk to you. I haven't seen you all week."
Katniss still felt rigid with anger but the look on Peeta's face was enough to melt her resistance. Stepping carefully past Gale and Madge, who had already withdrawn into a world that only included them, Katniss took Peeta's hand and let him lead her to the reeds around a bend in the lake, to a point far away from Gale and Madge. As they walked, he pulled out a small bag and handed it to her.
"I brought you fresh cheese buns," he said quietly as they pushed their way through shoulder-high grasses. He flattened the tall stalks, laying a blanket over the padded vegetation, effectively hiding them from view of their friends.
"Peeta…" Katniss began, a complaint rising out of her, aching to be heard, filled with anger, desperation, confusion and, at the bottom of it all, a furious longing for him.
"Shhh…" he tugged her down on to the blanket, catching her face in his hands before kissing her, lingering on her lips and stealing her breath with its intensity. He pressed her slowly onto the blanket until he hovered over her.
"I've missed you so much," he mumbled against her lips, his hands attacking her, tugging at the buttons of her light hunting pants, crawling under her t-shirt, pushing her bra up to cup her firm breast, kneading it in his calloused palm. Katniss was lost, carried away by his kisses, his hips that now ground his erection into her leg. She needed to tell him to stop, that maybe Gale and Madge could hear them, that they were somewhere nearby, beyond the slope and the reeds but Peeta wouldn't hear a word from her.
"Peeta…" she insisted as he unzipped her pants, yanking them off of her together with her boots and tossing them into a tangled heap next to them. He tore her shirt off so she lay completely naked before him, her skin tingling from the sun, the breeze and his hungry eyes on her.
"Shhh...tell me everything you want to say later," Peeta said as he quickly undressed and settled between her legs. "We have the whole day…" he whispered as he rubbed his hard cock at her entrance, hissing at the contact. She was already wet for him. Despite the anxiety and stress of the week, it only took one look from him to make her body sing from want. Forgetting everything, Katniss closed her eyes, feeling him slide inside of her, reveling in the perfect way he fit with her. She hadn't been with anyone else before him but she doubted that anyone could feel the way Peeta felt inside of her now, rocking slowly into her, seeking out her pleasure in long strokes and the tilted angle of his hips.
His thrust came faster as the tension and desperation for release built between them. With his lips at her throat, she came with such force, Peeta had to cover her mouth to keep the shouts of pleasure from bursting down the embankment. He followed soon after, biting back his moans, shuddering until his body betrayed him and he gave out, crumbling limply over her.
He took his time to come back from his high, running his fingers over her hips and thighs. For a while, Katniss did not think of the impossible predicament of her life with Peeta or his engagement to Madge. She thought only of his physicality - his broad shoulders partially blocking the vivid blue sky when he leaned over her. The sparkling sun played games with his hair, shimmering throughout like fingers of golden fire. She was happiest when she was out in the woods but never more so than at that moment, where she lay naked with Peeta, pinned beneath his warm, protective body.
The lull was broken when he rolled away to fetch the bag of cheese buns, breaking the bread into pieces and feeding them to her.
"I just want to freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever with you. Would you allow it?" he asked.
Katniss slowly swallowed the piece of bread in her mouth, overcome with sudden emotion. "I'd allow it," she said, her heart withering as reality reared its ugly head, refusing to be kept at bay. "I would allow you to have anything you wanted, no matter what it was." She paused, loathe to give reality the power to break their idyll. "But your mother might have other ideas about that."
"My mother," Peeta repeated, helping pull Katniss to a sitting position close to him. "The idea of this entire charade is to convince my mother to sign the shop over to me, to make her think she is getting what she wants in return."
"So, is your plan to get 'fake-married' and then maybe have 'fake-children' and create a 'fake-family' for the rest of your life?" she burst out. "This is hopeless. We were stupid to think we could get away with this. And it was all my half-baked idea!"
"No, to all of that." Peeta peered at her as he broke off another piece of a cheese bun and popped it in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. "Do you know under which circumstances a marriage can be considered invalid?"
Katniss took the proffered piece of bread, considering Peeta in return. "You mean, at the time of the ceremony?"
"Yes," he answered.
Katniss considered him for another moment. "When either the bride or the groom are already married to someone else."
Peeta smiled at her before tugging his back pack towards him, pulling a small pouch from inside. "Do you know why people in our District do a toasting?"
Katniss's eyes widened as he loosened the tie on the pouch and emptied its contents into his open hand. "No...I mean, I have an idea…"
"Freedom. It represents the ultimate freedom to choose the person we love," Peeta, said, toying with something small between his forefinger and thumb. "No matter what the government, or society or our parents say, the toasting belongs entirely to the couple in question. We choose who we want to share that moment with when we bind ourselves to another." He paused his handling of the small object to hold Katniss's gaze. "It's done in secret because it's one of the few decisions that can't be undone by anyone else. Not even the law can interfere with it."
He angled what he held in his fingers before her so that it was revealed to be a simple ring. The gold band was without elaboration except for the engraving of a slim vine that wound it's way completely around the metal. He held it before her but she didn't reach out to touch it right away, for fear it might dissolve in her hands together with every dream she had never known she had with Peeta.
"What about...your mom? Your engagement?" she stuttered, her voice quavering.
"I appreciate everything that Gale and Madge have done to keep my mother from having her way," he said as he captured her hand. "But I don't ever want to forget what's the endgame. It really isn't the bakery or the wedding. It's you. I would let everything else go before I lose you." He placed the ring over her left ring finger and slid it carefully up until it nestled into place.
Katniss stared down at the ring, then back up at Peeta, hoping that he was serious and it was not all still part of the subterfuge or a figment of her imagination. She'd vowed never to get married - she had always been completely blunt on the matter. But Peeta changed her mind and now that he was offering her the very thing she thought she'd never wanted, it suddenly became her greatest heart's desire.
"Would you marry me?" Peeta asked.
Katniss stared dumbly, trying to give her doubts and hesitation a last chance to assert themselves but they remained silent. Only her concern for the bakery persisted. It would be a loss for him and that alone should have encouraged her to behave more nobly and let him go but she was just too greedy to live without him.
"Yes,' she said, barely a whisper. "Let's get married."
Peeta leaned forward, kissing her fully on the mouth. When he pulled back he was smiling happily and she was sure the glassiness of his eyes were from the tears that he had not shed. She basked in the moment though her stomach quivered with fear.
"Let's have our toasting today," he said.
Katniss shook her head in disbelief. "You came prepared, didn't you? You even brought the witnesses."
Peeta smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, well, you're a hard bird to catch and I wasn't planning on letting you get away." His face became serious. "I know how unhappy you must have been this week."
Katniss dropped her eyes to her ring finger, caressing the gold band. Unhappy was too weak of a word to describe what she'd felt. She could feel her throat constrict so that all she could say was, "Yeah." But Peeta, who understood her so well, took her hand and squeezed it gently, and didn't ask anymore about it.
She glanced past the impenetrable wall of grass, in the direction where they'd left Madge and Gale. It occurred to Katniss that they'd known what Peeta was coming to do. Like always, they were their co-conspirators. Her best friends. Katniss realized with sudden clarity what they meant to her and how lucky she was to have all of them.
Without a word, they dressed and, hand-in-hand, made their way across the embankment and back to where their friends waited for them.
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Many thanks to the lovely mylionskitten for the prompt. Thanks also to akai-echo and thegirlfromoverthepond, who gave me invaluable feedback and helped make this chapter better. I had only intended for this story to last four parts but turns out there is a fifth part (The Wedding) and an outtake featuring Gadge. I realized I needed something between chapters 2 and 3 to explain the Gale's sudden gentility towards Madge. I think the Outtake will do that as well as tie in to the conclusion. They'll be published together very soon.
Thanks for reading this little confection!