Thanks to titania and peetabreadgirl for their work in this chapter, also thanks to my newfounded treasure otrascosasseries.

Chapter 8

Peeta has spent the last hour considering all the benefits of closing the bakery early today. It's Katniss' day off, so maybe if he does close early he would get to spend some time with her before Jo and Annie's arrival, maybe she lets him kiss her again. He is pretty sure his employees won't complain about leaving early. But it's Murphy's law, and he can't believe the busy day he is having. How many damn kids can have the same birthday? Not to mention the extra cookies he has to decorate for Ms. Lewis' poker game.

The weather has been cooling down lately, and clients coming in for hot chocolate and donuts have been on the rise, but today was just crazy, so when Peeta hears the bell at the entrance again, he really wants to groan loudly. Rue, who is in charge of the cash register today, watches him wide-eyed as he stalks toward the front of the store stomping his feet childishly. He stops when he reaches the door, hands on his waist ready to snap. Now what?

Peeta is standing, hands still at his waist but his expression is completely different now from when he came from the back room. (According to what Rue would mockingly say to him a few days later, he apparently shown an expression of utter stupidity and wonder.)

"Katniss," he greets but he is short of breath and sounds more like he split her name Kat-nisss. "What are you doing here, is everything allright?"

"I went for a walk, and somehow I ended up across the street and decided to come and say hi…so hi." She waves awkwardly. "I hope that's okay." She says looking down.

"It's more than okay, come in," Peeta smiles wide, and motions for her to follow him to the back. She mumbles a shy hello to Rue on her way to the back store.

He gives her a quick tour and then gestures for her to sit down and leaves for a moment to return with a steaming cup of chocolate and a pair of cheese buns. She said they were her favorites, right?

"Oh thank you! My mouth was watering since I step in, everything looks and smells amazing, Peeta," her dreamy-like voice makes him chuckle.

He can tell for the short time around her that if there is a way in the world to make Katniss smile, it's to place food in front of her, she has such a sweet tooth. Peeta finds her staring at the rack of glazed donuts, her face is priceless, but when she catches sight of a full tray of frosted chocolate cupcakes, he thinks she is about to faint.

Watching Katniss Everdeen enjoy pastries is a sight to behold. Her normal quiet demeanor turns into an expressive one, she sighs and moans and let her eyes roll backwards. If it weren't for the amused expression of his employees watching him with cocky grins he'd given himself full permission to appreciate the view.

"If I work here, there wouldn't be clothes in the world that fit me. I don't know how you can look the way you do."

"And how is that I look like exactly?" he says with a teasing grin that makes her blush. And scowl.

"You know…um…fit." She stammers. He thanks her for the compliment. They chat for a while, Peeta is static for having her here, but is almost time for them to leave if they want to be on time to welcome Katniss visitors so, he announces the staff he is going home.

They arrive to the apartment barely on time, because as soon as they got in, someone knocks on the door.

"They're here," Katniss whimpers. Her terrified look makes him walk to her and without thinking further hug her, in a reassuring gesture. To his surprise, her arms encircle his waist as she rests her head on his chest. Katniss then takes a deep, calming breath and opens the door.

A girl jumps to Katniss arms, almost throwing her backwards, undoubtedly they would have fallen backwards if he wasn't there to support Katniss' back, "I'm sorry, I'm just so happy to see you."

She looks similar to Katniss. Both of them have long black hair and a slender figure, what distinguish them the most is the eyes; Annie's are as green as the sea while Katniss's are two pools of silver water running down her face.

Johanna enters and closes the door behind her, greeting Peeta with a nod of her head.

The girls hug each other and sit on the couch, Katniss pulls at Peeta's hand, not letting him go, so he sits next to her, Johanna's eyebrows shoot up when she notices the gesture.

Annie is quiet too and pretty shy. She doesn't pry or makes Katniss uncomfortable. She only asks a couple of questions, Where were you? Are you okay now? and they stay there holding hands for a while. No doubt they're related, watching the two quiet girls with their calm demeanor enjoying the feel of being reunited again, no need for words, at least until Annie leans but pulling her face over Katniss lap and starts silently crying.

"I was so worried about you, I'm so glad you're fine Kat,"

Peeta watches how Katniss caresses her hair lovingly, whispering, there's not much Peeta can understand but he gets to hear a bit.

"I'm sorry Annie, I've never meant to put you through this honey, you have had enough already. Please forgive me," and then she starts to hum "Remember this song? You and Prim were always pestering me to sing it for you when you were sad," Katniss starts to hum a song, is about a meadow and she has a sad, far away expression on her face that makes Peeta's breath stop , and right there, with the magic sound of her voice Peeta gets the realization that he is deeper than he thought. There will be no turning back with this girl, the shaking in his body just confirms it.

At the sound of Katniss voice Annie expression change, she looked to be trapped somewhere in her mind. Not even Johanna dears to disrupt the scene; but a loud knock at the door does it, breaks the new founded peace in the apartment, Peeta opens the door to find a very mad Finnick Odair.

"What the fuck Peet? Okay I shouldn't have said what I said the other night at the bar but I didn't think it was such a big deal, you've been ignoring my calls and texts, jeez, I only said that you were into this girl not.."

"Finn, shut up. I'm sorry, I promise I will call you this time but you need to go now, we're in the middle of something here…"

"No, nonono, no way Mellark. I'm not leaving," he pushes past Peeta and enters the room. On one side is a very annoyed Johanna and next to her is Katniss with a wide eyed Annie still over her lap, tears in her eyes.

"What's going on here?" Finnick asks, seeing the small crowd gathered on Peeta's living room.

"A private moment, you moron, what are you doing here?" Jo answers.

"Well, he is the one to blame, he didn't answered my calls or texts, and I don't like to be ignored, so I decided to show up," Finnick points at Peeta in a childish way.

Is not that he's ignoring him but Peeta just doesn't feel like explaining to anybody that as soon as he is out of the bakery, his mind is full of Katniss, there's no room for anything else.

"So, what's going on Peet? Who is this people? I have so many questions…"

Peeta leades Finnick to the kitchen so he stops interrupting Katniss's momentum with his questions, "isn't she the girl at the bar?"

"Yes she is, would you shut up and let me explain?"

"Fine," Finn answers, crossing his arms, "I'm waiting."

Peeta sighs, "she is living here, you already know Johanna, and the other girl is Katniss cousin, they haven't seen each other for a long time and…"

"She is living with you?How did that happen?"

"She is not living with me, the way you're implying, Madge brought her home, and she is staying with us."

"I don't see Madge, for me she is living with you, you dog," Finn attempts to high five Peeta but he only receives a punch on his shoulder.

"Ouch!"

"Shut up! I'm telling you is not like that," and he refrains himself to add a hopeful yet to his sentence.

Peeta tries to divert Finnick attention, asking him to take the tray with the baked goods to the living room. It works for now, but Peeta knows the interrogation isn't over.

After all, Finnick unannounced visit turned out to be a blessing, his constant jokes and his alliance with Johanna to make fun of Peeta have the girls in a fit of laughter. Peeta couldn't care less, provided that smile continue in Katniss face.

After an emotional, nice afternoon and promises to keep in touch, the girls finally say goodbye. Finnick insists way too much to take Annie and Johanna home.

"It wasn't so bad, was it?" Peeta asks after everyone left, and they feel the peace of finally being alone.

"No, you were right, it wasn't," Katniss answers while they walk to his bedroom to prepare for bed.

She removes her sweater, "here, grab this," Peeta says, handing her a pair of his shorts, sensing she won't separate from him this night, not even to get her pajamas from the other room. Maybe he should vacate a drawer so she can keep her stuff there. But it wouldn't be weird living in in the same house?

He lays in bed facing the opposite side, looking away to give her some privacy while she changes clothes. He opens his eyes when he feels her lying on bed. He makes room for her and she places her head in her usual spot, over his heart.

"What happened to Annie?" he asks, after a while absentmindedly tracing circles on her back.

She turns to face him.

"You don't have to tell me if you do…"

"I do want to, I trust you. She has been through so much that her mind sometimes can't cope. His dad died when she was a kid, just like mine, but her mother reacted quite different than mom did. She started fooling around and neglecting Annie. One of her mother's boyfriends found Annie quite entertaining, if you know what I mean. I guess she learned to train her mind to flee when it is too much for her to handle, so she goes to that special place every time she needs to."

"Katniss, that's horrible."

"It is. As soon as Jo found out she took Annie to her home, they've been roommates ever since."

"But she is your cousin, why doesn't she want to live with you?"

"My mother wasn't good enough to take care of us. Especially me, I look exactly like my father, I reminded her of him too much."

"Annie looks a lot like you." He responds, knowing that is the cause, it will be too much for Katniss mother, two girls with the looks of her dead husband. Katniss nods as if she had the ability to hear his thoughts.

A few minutes pass, enjoying the weight of her head over his chest,

Peeta's eyelids start to close, "Peeta?"

"Yes?" he answers softly.

"What was Finnick talking about?" Peeta tenses and of course Katniss can feel it, being so close to him, so she raises her head to look into his eyes.

There, this is the moment when everything can be thrown over. He isn't going lie because she just said she trust him, so he convinces himself that he needs to be honest.

"Peeta?"

"He was talking about a girl and you said you didn't have a girlfriend anymore so I was just curious."

He takes one much needed, deep, calming breath and sighs loudly, "He was talking about you."

She doesn't respond and her silence is killing him.

She is not blinking, Peeta fears he just screw this royally until she asks, "me?" She swallows loudly, "You like me?"

He takes a deep, calming breath and confesses, "Yes. So, so much."

"Why?" she asks dismayed as very idea was beyond her comprehension..

"Really Katniss? Setting aside the fact that you're beautiful?"

"You think I'm beautiful?" she inquires and her look says that she doesn't believe it.

"I think you're stunning," he raises his head from the bed until both heads are at the same level and their noses are almost touching, "more like gorgeous," he whispers, leaning closer to her so he is almost over her lips, "as a matter of fact, you take my breath away everytime I see you, and the fact that you have no idea...god," she closes her eyes, and tilts her head, Peeta needs no further invitation to press his lips to her.

Firmly, sensing the warmth of her mouth, Peeta cups her neck, caressing it with his palms, securing her to him. Their mouths opens on their own accord to deepen the kiss, this time her hands grip his strong shoulders, he nips her lower lip between his, and then they switch, getting familiar with each other mouths, until they're panting for air.

As soon as they break the kiss they start another, tongues get involved this time, their hands roam through backs and arms, and moans escape each other mouths. Takes a lot of willpower to calm for them but he know she isn't ready for that, although she doesn't say so.

Next morning Peeta realizes that, at some point, after thinking he was going to stay awake the whole night trying to get his body under control, he must have fallen asleep wrapped around her. His dreams filled with vanilla scent instead of nightmares.

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