Chapter 7 – Peeta

I hate today. I have always hated this day, but doesn't everyone in the districts? I came into the bakery early to work with my brothers and parents. Farrel seems pretty happy, none of his family can be reaped and his fiancée is older and has no younger siblings. Riye is far more nervous as his girlfriend is in her last year and I'm pretty sure she had to take out tesserae in the harder years. Father is letting Riye slack off a bit while we do more work. I think he just wanted to make sure he was working at the front so he could give all of the families with children of reaping age extra portions. He does that every year, though only in the past couple have I begun to slip money in the till for the missing portions so mother doesn't notice.

I'm working to keep my mind off of things. My biological family might be safe now but I have recently gotten a little sister who I know would never make it through the games. I can't focus when I think of Prim getting reaped and Katniss is even more worried. We are not pregnant. We have not even tried. Snow shouldn't know that though, and no further threats have been given. It was the only thing that was reassuring us that this reaping wouldn't be fixed to be not in Prim's favor.

After a little help from my new best friend Johanna, Katniss and I have been together but safely, with no fear of children. I still can't believe she sent those condoms. We were careful in our wording, never actually saying what we were talking about, on the phone and Johanna made it clear she mostly sent them as a joke but laughed hysterically when I was super thankful. She promised to send more whenever I needed. I wish her and Katniss got along. I almost feel like I am sneaking around when I talk to her on the phone or send her letters. But I can't not talk to her, she is clearly one of the most awesome people I have met recently and I will not lose my source.

Riye is back to pacing and mother is back to cursing at him. It doesn't matter now we don't have any customers. He can pace all he wants. The door chime rings signaling a new customer and Riye stops. I look over and see Madge and smile. I walk over and give her a hug, she is nervous too. It's her last year in the reaping, though she has the minimum amount of slips. "Do you have some time? I thought we could maybe eat lunch," she asks. Her father is probably busy with the people of the Capitol and her mother probably has another one of her headaches. She can't be with Katniss either, as she has decided to have a Prim day and took her to the woods.

"Yeah, lunch sounds great," I had been hanging out with Madge a lot recently, since she was Katniss's only friend, other than Gale, and I would much prefer to hang out with Madge than Gale. I have recently started inviting Madge whenever Katniss had Gale over. I don't think Gale or Katniss notice why but Madge is appreciative, and I am appreciative of anyone trying to keep Gale's mind off of my wife. We have all taken a few trips to the woods together and I had hoped Madge would make me feel better about being loud. I was wrong, as Madge was just as quiet and light-footed as the two experienced hunters. They eventually left me on a log to see if Madge might be able to actually shoot something. She managed to get a squirrel. She felt bad about it the rest of the day though, just like Prim.

I go back in the kitchen and tell my family that I am leaving. Riye immediately says he will cover for me. He has been overly nice since I was reaped and he didn't volunteer even though he could. He doesn't need to though, I think most everybody understands, except maybe Katniss who I can tell dislikes Riye. Farrel looks at mother and expects an argument but she remains silent. I guess that's another benefit of the games, though I guess most people wouldn't benefit from their family being afraid of them.

I take off my apron, grab a loaf of bread and pay for it quickly. Madge takes my arm as I hold it out to her and we head towards the small park outside of the merchant square. Madge already carried some meat and cheese for the bread and a small basket of strawberries. We sit at a picnic table. Normally kids would be running around playing everywhere here. Today, it is silent and empty. Madge hands me the strawberries.

"Where did you get these? They look really fresh," Katniss hasn't been trading for a while so I already know the answer but I can still tease Madge a little. She blushes as she answers,

"Gale, but you knew that," she gives me a not very mean, mean look. I'm guessing it's kind of what my mean look looks like and why Katniss laughs at me when I get mad. Merchant class has clearly not become an expert in the arts of scowling.

"What did you get them for?" I arch my eyebrows a little to show my hidden meaning and she doesn't blush this time but surprises me and laughs and throws a small piece of bread at me.

"Stop teasing, Peeta. I trade them for piano lessons," I choke on the strawberry in my mouth. She is teaching Gale piano. Gale. Piano. I struggle with the next words because this is too good and I have to resist laughing and running and telling Katniss before I know for sure.

"You teach Gale piano?" The noises I'm making are a combination of coughing from the strawberry and laughter. Madge looks concerned about the coughing and hands me the water.

"No, his little sister, Posy." Dammit for ruining my fun at Gale's expense. How did Madge end up teaching Gale's sister piano? I don't actually have to ask out loud because Madge begins to explain without my questioning. "I helped her plant flowers one day and she really liked me so I stopped by sometimes to check on the flowers and see her," that she also wanted to see Gale is implied in her pause, "One day, I mentioned I play piano and Posy begged me to teach her. Of course I agreed but Gale insisted he pay me in some way. I agreed to trade for strawberries." She shrugs her shoulders.

Not a bad move Undersee, she is getting close to Gale by getting closer to the person that Gale loves most in the world. This may be the slowest seduction of all time, no wait, the second slowest, mine was clearly the first, but it could eventually work. I smile at her and nod "Good plan, Madge," she blushes again. I realize she hasn't eaten any of the strawberries and push them towards her.

"Oh no, I don't like strawberries." I scoff and her blush disappears and a look of pride comes on her face. "Posy loves them, though. She normally eats them all during her lesson but she wasn't feeling very well yesterday so I had leftovers," This is impressive. She has managed to get out of Gale's never ending owing train. She didn't refuse payment which Gale would have hated but accepted it but gave it all to his little, probably pretty hungry, sister. Madge is way more sly than I thought. I take the strawberries back and finish the last of it.

As we finish off the food, I finally can't hold my questions back, "Are you ever going to tell Gale?" She glances at me surprised and then frowns at the table.

"I don't know. Would have ever told Katniss if you hadn't been reaped?" That's a valid question, I had always been a littl(a lot) intimidated by Katniss. I was in love with Katniss since I was five years old and never said anything. I can't fault Madge for not sharing after what I'm guessing is a year or two and is probably just a crush.

"I honestly have no idea but I think it was worth it," I smile as I think of the times Katniss and I have now spent together. All the dates, the being together, and most recently the "I love you" exchanges. That last one took me by surprise as much as I think it did Katniss. We were baking cakes with Prim for their mother's birthday but we had no idea what kind was her favorite so we ended up making four. We got into an icing fight when I insulted Katniss's attempts at a flower and she put it in my hair. Prim laughed at me so I smeared it on her nose. It only got more extreme after that and we messed up the entire kitchen and some of the living room. When we were all laughing and covered in icing, Katniss let the words slip. She looked so surprised. I decided to ignore the big deal of it all to make her comfortable and just told her I loved her too kissed her icing covered nose and called dibs on the shower as I ran up the stairs. She seemed back to her usual self as she cursed at me and then laughed more with Prim. She says it randomly now, slips it into normal conversation as if I won't notice. It's my favorite thing to hear in the world.

"You think being in the Games was worth it?" she is clearly incredulous and I can understand why. That is not what I meant.

"No. No, the hunger games are terrible no matter what you get out of it," Being with Katniss doesn't completely get rid of my nightmares or hers and I still feel like I have blood on my hands. Plus, mentoring is its own special brand of torture, "I meant the telling her that I loved her." Madge smiles and nods her head in understanding.

"Well I'm glad it worked out for you," she responds. "I should be going to get ready. Thank you for having lunch with me."

"No problem, Madge. Good luck," I call out as she waves and walks away. I figure that the bakery has probably already closed by now so I decide to head straight home. Katniss and Prim should be getting back soon and I want to be there for them. I'm a little surprised when they are back already. "Hey, what happened?"

Katniss sighs "The fence was turned on, we couldn't go out and Prim just wanted to come home," she smiles lightly at Prim and strokes her hair. I go over and kiss Katniss on the temple and then pick up Prim and spin her in a little circle. She laughs and I put her down so she is sitting on the counter. "Did you guys already eat?" They both nod and Katniss grabs my hand.

"Prim, can you give us a minute?" Katniss asks. Prim smiles again and hops off the counter to head into the back yard where she finds Buttercup and picks him up. Katniss grabs me in a hug and hides her face in my chest. "I can't do this, Peeta." She seems so scared. I feel so scared. I watch Prim outside petting her ugly cat and still looking so innocent at fourteen.

"It will be ok, Katniss. We would have heard of something from Snow by now if we had a time limit. He can't know anything." She nods into my chest and grabs my shirt in her hands. He would give another warning, not just murder her little sister in the Games. I have to believe this.

"Promise?" she looks into my eyes, I nod and kiss her on the forehead.

"I promise," She smiles lightly and turns and heads towards the door pulling me by the hand. We sit outside on the back deck with Prim and just wait. We barely speak, none of us can really think of anything to say to make any of us feel better. Mrs. Everdeen joins us as we get up to leave and stop by and pick up Haymitch on the way. He has managed to stay functionally drunk today which is better than our reaping. I think he likes having us here. He manages to stay mostly sober when we are around.

We have to drop off Prim at the reaping area. This is the worst moment. I want to tell her so many things like the odds will be fine and she won't be picked but I can't because Katniss made the same promises before and that was without threats looming against our family. Our, my family. That's what Prim is now and I'm afraid to lose my little sister. She wraps her arms around my waist in a hug. She moves onto her mother and even Haymitch and when she hugs Katniss, its actually Katniss who begins to cry as Prim comforts her. A peacekeeper yells at us to move along so we head to the stage. We walk behind a slightly stumbling Haymitch. "Peeta," She pulls on my hand signaling me to stop, "I can't do this every year. I can't deal with threats against Prim. We need to do it," I look at her in shock. She has been so scared to have children but apparently the threat against Prim has finely gotten to her. I can only imagine what she would be like when our kids would be reaping age. I can imagine her running into the woods with them first.

"Okay, we will start after the games. Don't worry; it's only been a year," I wonder how many times I have said this. A lot. I hope I am not lying to her. We reach below the stage and Effie greets us with the usual enthusiasm. She asks if we have any big big big news and lightly touches Katniss's stomach. Katniss looks sick as she replies no. Effie looks disappointed but recovers quickly.

"I'm sure you will soon, dears! Oh, it's time to get started!" Effie leads us to the stage and the three of us sit in the assigned seats for victors next to the mayor's seat. He nods at us but stays seated, shifting nervously. Effie takes her seat on the other side. The clock strikes two and Mr. Undersee stands and heads to the podium. He goes through his normal speech and Haymitch, Katniss, and I stand as our names are called as the past victors.

Soon Effie is being introduced and her perky-self greets everyone with a "Happy Hunger Games! May the Odds be ever in your favor!" I am really not paying attention to anything. Katniss and I are holding hands so tight that our knuckles are white. "Ladies first!" She walks to the bowl and I can see Katniss's lips moving in repetition of 'Not Prim, Not Prim, Not Prim.' I join her, focusing all my thoughts on Prim not getting picked. Effie pulls the slip, walks to the microphone, and reads the name.

All I feel is relief at first that our silent hopes were answered. It was not Prim. But then my heart feels like it is getting crushed in my chest and I realize we were so very stupid. Stupid for thinking they could only hurt us with Prim and stupid for thinking we could get away with anything else with the Capitol after all we have done. Katniss has begun to shake beside me and Haymitch has actually jumped out of his chair. I can hardly breathe.

But none of us can do anything as we watch Madge walk slowly towards the stage.

A/N Sorry readers! Please review….but don't hate on me too much!