Author's Note: SORRY, SORRY, SORRY! It's been a couple of days since I last updated, and I feel terrible since some of you like me because of my somewhat daily updates. I've been pretty busy this week with exams and other stuff, so I didn't get a chance to write a chapter that I was happy with until today. I made this chapter extra lengthy to (sort of) make up for it. Promise, I'll keep a less sporadic updating schedule next week! If you aren't too mad at me, please review, tell me what you think, give me suggestions, and feel free to beat me up ;D

-Lele


Peeta:

Katniss and I had stayed up discussing the guest list. In the end, this is what we came up with: Annie, Johanna, Beete, Enobaria, Haymitch, Gale, Anne, Plutarch, President Paylor, Rena & Luca, Annie's three sons (Trevor-who was Finnick's, but James and Anthony were from her second husband) along with her husband, Delly Cartwright (who had moved back to Twelve shortly after the rebellion and I spoke to occasionally), Flavius, Venia, Octavia, Greasy Sae, Maggie, and a couple of other people from Twelve who Katniss was close to. There was only one problem. Katniss had already told me her maid of honor would be Anne, but who could be my best man?

When I came back to Twelve, a couple of months after the rebellion, Katniss had been my main concern. Ever since, I'd never really gotten too chummy with any guys from Twelve. Haymitch was probably the only man that I could call a close friend, and since he'd been through so much with me, I walked over to his house to ask him.

"Hey Haymitch." I said as I approached his front yard. He stood outside of his house feeding his geese. Seriously, how had they survived and reproduced this long? He nodded at me in greeting. "As you know, Katniss and I are having our second wedding. I was wondering if you'd like to be my best man." I proposed.

He looked up at me sheepishly. "Gee, sorry Peeta. I would love to be your best man, but I already agreed to walk Katniss down the aisle." Katniss hadn't told me. "Oh, okay Haymitch. What she wants is more important. Who else do you think I should ask?" He took a while to answer, but he had a mischievous grin on his face.

"Why don't you ask Gale? It would be a gallant move on your part, and it would just add to the whole 'insecurities behind us' thing." He suggested. Hesitantly, I thanked him for the input and headed to Gale's house before I could give up on the idea. He most likely wasn't hunting, since Katniss was busy with Effie.

After knocking twice, Gale answered the door. "Hello Peeta. Come on in." he welcomed. I could hear Rena and Luca playing in the other room, but he led me into the kitchen. "I was just making some stew, so we'll have to speak in the kitchen." I nodded and begun my preposition.

"Katniss probably told you about our upcoming second wedding. I was wondering if you'd like to be my best man." Gale looked surprised at first, but then his expression became unreadable. "Actually, Katniss didn't actually personally tell me about the wedding. I've heard gossip around the district. She's been avoiding me lately. May I ask, why are you guys having all this fuss anyways? It doesn't seem like Katniss."

It was strange that Katniss was avoiding Gale, but I guess it was understandable. At first I considered lying to Gale, but since he was so closely tied to the real reason we were doing this, I explained the whole thing. As my explanation progressed, his face became stormy.

"So Katniss thought Anne was cheating on me, yet she didn't tell me anything? I sat there comforting her, thinking it was a fight you two had, while she knew there was a possibility my wife was cheating on me?" He shouted once I finished. "Peeta, I'll be your best man if it'll convince you that Katniss and I have nothing going on. But I need to have a conversation with her first!" And with that, Gale stalked out of his own house, leaving me standing there completely dumbfounded and wondering just what to do with the boiling stew.


Katniss:

Peeta and I had drafted up the list of guests, and he left the food up to me. Effie had to help with that, because the only think I really wanted was some lamb stew with dried plums and cheese buns. She suggested some cuisine from Twelve, like goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves, as well as a different bread representing each district. There were things that I knew from when I was the Capitol, like chicken and oranges in cream sauce on rice, goose liver with puffy bread, and some flower shaped rolls with peas and onions that she added to the list as well. In the end, we had plenty of mouthwatering foods to order.

She started taking measurements for my dress, and Anne came over to get hers taken too. We decided she would be my only bridesmaid to make things easier, and her dress would be forest green. Daisy wanted to be the flower girl and Will wanted to be the ring-bearer, so we got their fittings out of the way as well. Just as I was about to take a well-deserved break (who knew this would be so stressful?) a fierce knock sounded on the door.

With a quizzical look at Effie, I went to answer it. Outside stood Gale, looking down at me with smoldering eyes. He pushed past me into the house without even saying hello. Incredibly irritated, I turned around with my hands on my hips. "What are you doing here Gale?" I demanded.

"Why did you think you had the rights not to tell me that you thought my wife was cheating on me?" he yelled, straight to the point and right in my face. Grimacing, I looked away from him. I wasn't proud of that, and it had been part of the reason why I had been avoiding him.

"You're right. It was completely selfish of me. But you have to understand I wasn't sure, and I knew that if I told you, you wouldn't hesitate to confront Peeta about it. I just wasn't ready for that." Before he could respond, Effie and Anne came into the room. From the looks of it, Effie probably summoned Anne to calm her husband.

"Gale, what are you doing here?" Anne inquired, stepping between the two of us puzzled. He'd been standing a couple of steps in front of me with his arms crossed, and you could clearly tell he was angry. "Katniss didn't tell me she thought you were cheating on me, and that's just not right. If I thought Peeta was cheating on her, I wouldn't think before telling her." She came closer to him and put her hands on his chest. "Calm down. I don't blame her Gale, and you can see she feels terrible about it. And you know I wasn't cheating on you. So stop fussing over it." Her tone of voice was very reasonable, it seemed like even I could agree to anything she was saying.

His face softened and his arms fell to his sides, looking deflated of his anger. "Okay Katniss, I forgive you. But please, you can tell me anything. We're supposed to be best friends y'know." He looked at me pointedly and sighed. "As Peeta's best man, is there anything I can do to help?" I wondered if he was joking about the whole best man thing, but Effie pounced on him before I could question anything. "There's plenty you can do! The train comes in tomorrow, so we'll all be very busy. Come here, I need to take measurements for your suit!" she rattled on and Gale followed her out of the room. Anne and I looked at each other and laughed, because Effie Trinket could break even the toughest of men.


"Up, up, up! It's going to be a big, big, big day!" said Effie in an overly cheerful voice that woke us. She wanted us to wait for the train at the station. When we arrived there, the train was late, so Effie left us to yell at some poor station employee. As I sat on a bench in the station, terrible memories flooded is where I entered the train that led me to a whole new part of myself. The train that led me to so many horrors, hurt, and loss; the place where I was toyed with and broken. These thoughts stole my breath, made me shudder and quake dizzily, threatened to swallow me up.

"Katniss." The sudden voice broke me away from my morbid recollection. Peeta was here, I reminded myself. He was sitting by my side. We have a family together. The Games are just a distant past, the Capitol no longer a crushing force. After a few deep breaths, I assured him that I was alright and shook away his concerned looks.

About ten minutes later, the train arrived, much to Effie's relief. She had been pacing back and forth after the station manager assured her the delay would be brief. Once the train screeched to a stop, the doors opened and out flooded a troop of boxes, suitcases, and cameramen. Mr. Plutarch Heavensbee himself stepped off the train and came to greet us all warmly.

"Katniss, Peeta, Effie! Wonderful to see you all! As you can see, I went through a great trouble the last couple of days. Have you seen the new ad on television? Everyone's raving about it! The districts can't wait to see the remaining victors, not to mention the wedding of their favorite rebels!" I honestly had no idea what advertisement he was talking about, but surely he would show it to me later. I dreaded the fact that soon, I would have no privacy. Effie had already warned me, the next couple of weeks would be interview after interview, plus various wedding duties.

These thoughts were almost as overwhelming as my dark nostalgia, but not quite.


Effie made sure that Plutarch and the rest of his crew were comfortable in one of the empty houses of the Victor's Village. As soon as he was settled in, Plutarch called my prep team and told them to restore me to Beauty Base Zero since I'd be doing my first interview in a couple of hours. As always, Peeta was just fine and wouldn't need much prepping, so he was probably just relaxing now, or perhaps at the bakery.

I was ushered into my bathroom and Venia drew the bath, using settings that I'd never even considered. I was shaved, plucked, and doused in unpleasant liquids. Though I cared more about my appearance than I had before the Games, I still wasn't up to my prep team's standards. As they bathed me (which was very uncomfortable, by the way) the trio chattered about their lives just as they had before.

Once they thought my body was presentable, they started working on my hair. I never cut it much over the years, so it went down to the middle of my back. "This is terrible! We simply must dye the entire thing and add some highlights!" exclaimed Flavius so distraught that it was comical. The fact that I had grey hairs sprinkled across my dark brown locks was the biggest problem they found with me.

Flavius plastered my hair with overly sweet smelling chemicals then covered it with a thin layer of plastic wrappings, all while Octavia worked on evening out and coloring my nails. It was a long, patience-trying process and it took all of my self control not to scream after more than an hour of being pampered over.

When Flavius deemed my hair ready, he took off the wrappings and took out a scary looking device that blew gusts of warm air onto my newly dyed tresses, drying it in only a few minutes. Venia begun doing my makeup, which didn't take very long since Beauty Base Zero requires a very natural look.

Finally, after many hours, they let me look in the mirror. My hair was loose around my face in undulating waves with not a single gray hair in sight. My eyebrows had been newly plucked, my skin looked pearly smooth and my gray eyes seemed almost radiant. Octavia had done my nails in a way so it looked as if nothing had been done to them, yet there were no uneven areas or chips. Once again I had to congratulate them, because I looked about ten years younger and absolutely beautiful.

Just then Effie came inside to help me choose my interview outfit. "Oh Katniss, you look magnificent!" she exclaimed. "Thank you Effie!" I beamed. "What am I supposed to wear in this interview?" She led me into a room adjacent to mine, where rack after rack of clothes had been set up. There were shiny evening dresses, mock hunting outfits, and if I wasn't mistaken, even some of the outfits I'd worn in the Capitol during my two Games.

"Well, Plutarch wants you to wear something 'Girl on Fire' themed if you don't mind. It's how people recognize you from the rebellion days." I sighed in relief. The wardrobe choices could've been much worse. Apparently, "Girl on Fire" had become a huge fashion trend sweeping across the districts years ago, so there were about two racks filled with these themed clothes. Effie wanted me to wear a poufy red ball gown that sparkled, complete with a headdress that looked like flames. I wanted to wear the comfortable looking hunting gear that had been colored to look like burning coal. After a great deal of discussion and one intervention from Plutarch, we decided on a knee-length dress that looked like dancing flames, along with black heels that looked like coal. The combo was so breathtaking that it seemed to be designed by Cinna himself. My hair was twisted into my signature braid and after applying a bit more makeup, I was ready for my close-up.

Hands shaking in agitation, I climbed down the stairs to my living room, which had been transformed. Cameras surrounded my couch, the furniture had been pushed out of the way, and a blue backdrop had replaced the view of my kitchen. Lights had been placed around the room, microphones planted, and a mini control room had been set up in the hallway. How long had I been getting ready anyways?

Peeta sat in the new and "improved" couch (fancy new cushions had been added to it) nonchalantly, looking extremely attractive. His blonde hair had been combed and styled, but besides that, he looked as handsome as always. He wore a suit that matched the coal-like texture of my shoes, along with a flaming tie. Somehow, the suit made his blue eyes pop and his mile-long eyelashes that you usually couldn't see more visible. I stood there, mesmerized until he caught me gawking and gestured for me to sit beside him.

"You look stunning Mrs. Mellark." He complimented quietly as he took my hand. "Thank my prep team for that. But you, sir, look dashing, all on your own." He laughed and kissed me. We were interrupted by a round of applause. "See that's golden for the camera! The audience would love that!" exclaimed Plutarch. A few minutes later everything was set and the interview about to begin.

"Hello citizens of Panem, we are here today at the home of two of the most famous victors, Peeta and Katniss Mellark! They will soon be renewing their vows in a fabulous celebration, but for now we will be asking them your questions about their life together after the rebellion! We'll also have special guests Gale and Anne Hawthorne, who will be taking part in the wedding, as well as other guests in the wedding!" introduced Plutarch in the perfect show-host voice.

Hmm, whatever happened to Ceasar Flickerman? I wondered. Plutarch sat in an ample chair beside us that looked very plush. "Let's begin with the questions! Now everyone is eager to know how old you both are?" Peeta shifted in his chair and put his arm around me. "I'm proud to say that I'm 43 years old" he said with a wink. Ugh. He was such a natural! "As am I." I responded with all the enthusiasm I could muster.

"Age is just a number! I must say, the two of you look fiery tonight!" It was amazing just so much like Ceasar he sounded. "Thank you so much Plutarch! You have my marvelous stylists to thank for that!" After a closer examination and several comments on how we seemed to heat up the room, Plutarch moved on to more questions.

"So, what do the two of you do today?" I hesitated. "Well, I'm finally able to use my archery skills freely. I go out into the woods almost every day and shoot some animals, then sell them." Hopefully talking about my hunting was an okay thing to do. "I've opened up my very own bakery. It's wonderful work! Luckily, Daisy seems to have a hand at baking too!" Peeta responded, lightening the load of my answer.

"Who's Daisy? Is she your only child?" Plutarch asked. "Daisy is our daughter, who's 10 years old now. We also have Will, who is our son and is 8 years old. It's true, Daisy loves to bake, but Will has a hand at hunting." I replied. Peeta chuckled beside me. "How about we bring out these kids, eh? Daisy and Will everybody!"

Shyly, the two kids came into the set, all dressed up. Daisy, ever daddy's little girl sat on Peeta's lap, while Will, who was a momma's boy sat on mine. "Hi kids! You guys look great!" greeted Plutarch. Daisy took the liberty to stand up and twirl in her frilly yellow dress. Her dark brown hair bounced around, her blue eyes shone. Will just sat there watching his sister, grey eyes wide and nervous.

"What a lovely family! Mr. and Mrs. Mellark have wedding business to attend to, so were going to interview their friends next. Don't worry, they will be interviewed further later on. Stay tuned!" Plutarch motioned for us all to stand up. Arms around each other, we waved to the cameras and Peeta and I shared a kiss. "Cut! That's a wrap!" exclaimed a cameraman.

"Wonderful job as usual Peeta! Katniss, it seems like you're doing better in front of the camera than before. Let me just say, Daisy is a natural!" I agreed. She was like Peeta in the sense that she did well with cameras and could bake, but she was a very stubborn and proud person, just like me.

Gale and Anne would be interviewed next, but Effie needed me for something, so I couldn't watch their interview in person. I guess I'd watch it when they aired it on television. "I have a surprise for you!" Effie squealed excitedly. I mentally rolled my eyes. It was probably something insignificant for the wedding that she thought was amazing.

We entered an isolated room in the house. It was bare, except for a large mahogany wardrobe with intricate carvings. Venia, Flavius, and Octavia stood in front of it, looking about to burst from anticipation. "The wedding dresses that Cinna made came in from the Capitol! You need to choose the one you like best." Effie explained.

Now wildly excited myself, I asked them to show me the dresses. It wasn't really the dresses that I looked forward to, but the person who made them. Cinna would be with me for my second wedding. With tears threatening to spill over my eyes, I examined the three dresses tenderly. They were designed so beautifully, each stitch placed carefully. Cinna really was a genius stylist. It took a while, but I decided on one that was simple yet masterfully crafted.

The dress had sleeves made of a soft, almost transparent white cloth that reminded me of a bird's wings. The neckline was a slight v-shape and small, almost invisible beads were scattered across the top half. From the waist down the dress poofed out just a bit, with intricate white lace over a silky bottom. The material cascaded down and looked light enough to fly in the wind. It was simple, yet stunning, and I fell in love with the dress. It was as if I could hear Cinna next to me, telling me that he was still betting on me.

Effie said she would make some minor adjustments according to my measurements, but it would be ready in a few days. Though before I had been looking at this whole wedding thing as a hassle, the dress made things less overwhelming. I actually found myself excited for the interviews, the fuss, and everything else. Once again, Cinna was giving me hope.


AN: The big wedding chapter is next (Woot, woot!). Let me explain the whole Katniss-lost-it-at-the-train-station thing, in case some of you were wondering. She went through so much, and I don't think she'll ever truly be okay. Things may get better and all, but Katniss is still a much scarred character. There'll probably be some more moments when she goes slightly coo-coo. I know not much happens in this chapter, but things will probably get more exciting. Hehe, mahogany wardrobe (see what I did there?) D Hope you liked it, and once again, sorry for taking so long to update!