note: hi! this chapter takes the all important, amazing title as my longest chapter! you see, i spent all Sunday writing it and all of this morning editing it! i hope you like it, in this chapter you see just how horrible peetas relationship with his brothers has gone, especially wheat ( i know, original name right?!) anyway, in this chapter, comes the all important question that you've all been asking me (drum roll) how did katniss know about peetas synaesthesia? its not the amazing long story that you may have expected, but with it comes a random shocking plot twist :O anyway, ill just let you get on with reading the chapter.

you've got the elephants their trunk mittens, but there are some pandas in need of ear muffs :P

Peeta woke up the next morning, with a strange sense of accomplishment, he started work on a positive note, and kneaded dough till his hands hurt. He had six hours of this until his shift was over, Peeta didn't care though, he loved baking.

It had been six hours, and Peeta was beginning to take the whole "I love baking" thing back, his hands ached, he had multiple burns on his arms and one on his leg, it looked like he tried to wrestle the oven, and lost, of course. He was glad his shift was over and went round the back for a rest, like a normal thirteen (almost fourteen) year old should be doing on a Sunday. Peeta sighed and waited for his eldest brother, Wheat to come downstairs it was his turn to do the baking shift, after a while he did come down, but he smelt like the town drunk, Haymitch.

"Take my shift." He ordered, slightly slurring his words.

"No." Peeta replied, taking another shift was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Take my shift." He repeated

"No."

"What did you just say?" Wheat snarled

"I said no." Peeta barely managed to get the last word out when he felt a fist coming in contact with his stomach; he fell on the floor, gasping for breath.

"Listen Peety." Spat Wheat, unlike the other times Rye and Wheat had called him Peety, this felt bad, menacing.

"I have things to do, I'm seeing friends tonight. Obviously you don't know about that because you don't have any."

Peeta stayed silent

"What's going on?" called a voice from upstairs, unmistakably Rye, which both Peeta and Wheat ignored.

"Take my shift, Peeta. It's obvious you have nothing else to do, because no one likes you. All you ever do is think about that stupid seam girl, she doesn't even like you. I bet she's out there, sucking faces with Gale Hawthorne as we speak."

Peeta still said nothing. But it hurt, because it was probably true.

"No one likes you, I don't, dad doesn't, mum doesn't, and Rye doesn't." At this point Rye decided it was time to come downstairs.

"I like Peety." He said, ruffling Peetas hair "who doesn't like Peety?"

"Everyone." Wheat snapped

Rye stayed silent.

"Everyone wanted a girl, but we got you. Don't try to deny it Rye, you wanted a little sister too, mum should have got an abortion, everyone would be so much happier."

"Wheat I was like three years old." Rye sighed; Peeta wasn't sure how it got from Wheat telling him to take his shift to this.

"But you still wanted a girl."

Rye looked worried and frowned.

The sad this is that once, when Peeta was around twelve, Wheat had told him to never forget what someone says when they are drunk, because that's when the truth came out.

Peetas whole body began to heat up, it started deep inside his stomach, a spark, small and bright, then it got bigger, and bigger engulfing his chest in flames then rose up and up, making him red in the face, and forcing salty tears out of his eyes. must,not,cry.

"Aww look Rye, little Peetys gonna cry!" teased Wheat, making Peeta madder and madder, he was pretty sure that if he could see his own aura, it would be very, very dark. He grunted, it was like a battle cry to Peeta, he jumped on Wheat screaming, crying and throwing punches, kicks and slaps, biting when he got the chance. The frustrating thing was, Wheat was just standing there laughing throughout the whole thing.

"Stop being so mean to Peeta." Said Rye, calmly

Peeta was just about to start speaking, to agree with Rye, when Wheat punched him. Right on his bruise, knocking him to the floor.

He got to his feet and fled.

….

Peeta didn't know where he was going, he felt like a wounded wild animal, he just realised, that right then his "flight or fight" instinct had kicked in, and he chose flight, like the coward he was. His cheek hurt savagely, and his feet were getting tired, every muscle in his body screamed at him to rest, but he couldn't stop now. He needed to go somewhere where there were no people, not here though, he stood out like a stick in the mud, blonde and blue in a sea of brown and grey.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours of walking, he stumbled upon a beautiful, lush green, meadow, frost coating the blades of grass in a cage of ice. Normal kids would have worried that their family will worry about them. Peeta knew his family didn't care. Tears formed in his eyes and a lump formed in his throat. He decided to let them out. Keeping them in wasn't good and besides, no one could see him here.

He screwed his eyes shut and cried silently, tears ran down his freezing face, he began to feel sorry for himself, wheat was right, everyone in his family wanted a girl, they couldn't even deny it, but they got him. A synaesthesic freak. No wonder they all hated his guts. Peeta wished he had a normal family, he wished he was from the seam, sure they were poor, and sure, some merchants hated them, but the seam were the happiest people. The most loving people. They cherished what little they had and loved so fiercely. They were strong and brave. If one of them saw him now, crying and snivelling like a fool in the meadow, they would think "oh no, look at this poor townie, had a little tiff with his brother, poor guy, that's much worse than not having enough to eat every day."

Peeta was so busy, swimming in his depression, feeling sorry for himself, that he didn't notice the small figure, glowing purple that came and sat next to him.

"Hi Peeta." She said.

He looked at her; his eyes were red and teary. It took him a second, but when he realised who it was he quickly and savagely wiped his tears away. It was the last person he wanted to cry in front of.

"Katniss."

"That's my name." she said "Thanks for the bread…it was… really…tasty." She finished a triumphant smile on her face. Peeta had an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. She's said that before, but when?

"You've said that before." He almost whispered

"Yeah, the day my dad died…"

"I'm sorry." Peeta said, ashamed for bringing that up.

"It's okay, it's been years."

"Why are you even here?" asked Peeta

"You looked like you needed some company."

"Maybe Gale needs some company." He retorted, the comment seemed to make Katniss mad. Very mad. Her aura glowed red and she glared at him with unforgiving grey eyes.

"Look Peeta, I'm trying to be nice, which isn't something I do often." She seethed, but at the same time being strangely calm

"So why don't you shut up, and play along, okay?"

"I'm sorry," said Peeta, eventually.

"You should be." She said, there was an awkward silence, Katniss felt the need to fill it, though she isn't normally the one to fill silences.

"It's okay really, I just lose my temper easily, you look upset, and so you probably have a short temper too, what happened anyway?"

"I had a fight with Wheat."

"Oh." She said, Peeta realised that she was trying hard to make it look like she cared; she obviously thought it was a silly thing to cry about, she probably expected a sad and heart wrenching tale from him, Just then, Peeta thought of a question he always wanted to ask her, and this would be the perfect time to bring it up.

"How did you know I had synaesthesia?"

"What?"

"Ages ago, you sang in music assembly, the teacher said that we had to write down what it made us think of, and you read mine, and said "you have synaesthesia.""

"I remember that, your one said that it reminded you of pink spots and lighting, my uncle has it. He says that when I sing it reminds him of pink spots and lightning."

"Oh." Peeta said, this wasn't the amazing, long, beautiful confession that he had expected, but it was good enough, at least the question wouldn't be bothering him anymore.

Katniss, sat there silently, her hand was on her chin, a serious, philosophical expression etched on her face that looked like she was pondering the meaning of life.

"He's staying at my house, would you like to meet him?" she finally asked, this took him by surprise; the Katniss Everdeen was inviting him to her house.

Katniss Everdeen wanted him, Peeta Mellark, townie and son of the baker at her house. He did a little dance inside his head; he couldn't believe that this was happening. He felt like exploding! Okay, Peeta, breathe, one, two. One two. One, Two.

"Sure." He said indifferently.

…..

When they reached Katniss' house. Prim opened the door, she looked shocked when she saw him and after "recovering" shouted out,

"Mum! Guess what! Katniss brought a boy home!" This caused both Katniss and Peeta to blush, it was true, but implied something else.

"Don't be silly Prim," Mrs Everdeen sighed, then called to Katniss "Katniss invite your friend in." Katniss and Peeta stepped in. Katniss' house was not nearly as big or pretty as his, but it had a homey feel to it. It felt lived in and it was clean, Peeta liked it better than his house. You could tell, at first glance, that the people who lived in the house were a very close family. They walked into the living room, it was small and cramped, and filled with random nick-knacks and family pictures, some old, some new, there was a dusty spider's web in the corner, but it was better than his living room. Katniss gestured towards an old man sitting at the table.

"That's my uncle." She said. Her uncle grunted in reply and opened his eyes, they were grey and the same shade as Katniss' eyes, but not nearly as pretty, he had brown hair and a grimy beard, his skin was oily and dirty. All in all he looked like and average seam man. His eyes studied Peeta, making him slightly self-conscious; eventually he opened his mouth to speak.

"Oh no, not another one." He said, with fake exasperation, Peeta decided he liked Katniss' uncle.

"Another what?" Peeta asked.

"Another one with a purple aura, just Katniss is enough."