Chapter 10

The Resolutions

…

"What now?" I ask as I lie curled up against Peeta's chest.

He tightens his grip around my waist, "We move forward. We talk, I talk, you talk. And we listen."

"Okay," I say, "I can deal with that… Are we starting now?"

"Um, sure," Peeta goes along, "You first."

"You need to shave. You are far past the sexy-five o'clock-shadow look."

"What, really," he whines palming his almost beard, "I thought I had something going with the uncontrollable hair and grizzly look."

I laugh leaning my head against his chest. "I'm sorry, but no, it has to go."

"Ahh, fine," he groans before kissing the top of my head, "But I will, only for you."

Letting out another laugh, I mumble a thank you into his chest. "And you," he begins with a type of giddiness in his voice, "You have to wear those heels more often."

"No, no, no," I say, "Hell no."

"Hey," he says in protest we, "We agreed to talk and listen and agree."

"There was nothing about agreeing," I say looking up at him. Yet it is a mistake as I look up, he gave me one of his sappy puppy dog looks saying, "But they make your legs look so long and sexy."

And unable to say no, I let out a groan plopping my head back down on his chest. "Only on certain occasions will you see me in those heels… maybe."

"Like at our wedding," he ask. And just like that, it hits me like a ton of bricks that I am going to marry Peeta at some point. I may not be marrying him tomorrow, but at some point in my future I will. I'm not opposed to the idea, but it seems to just have become fully aware in my mind that by accepting his engagement ring and saying yes that one day I will marry him. And then even more so it hits me that I have to tell him about Cato and I, that one meaningless kiss we shared.

"Peeta," I say in a low whisper, "I have to tell you something and you have to listen. And to not get too mad, please."

"Okay." Snuggling my face into the crook of his neck I hid away. "After our break, I began to hang out with Cato. And don't judge, he's not that bad. But-"

I begin only pausing to take in a deep breath. Com'on Katniss, I tell myself, you can do this, Peeta agreed to hear you out so tell him the truth and nothing can go wrong.

"But one day we were hanging out we kinda- we kissed," I say quickly, "It didn't mean anything, you have to understand that. It wasn't right, I couldn't do it and that doesn't mean he forced himself on me. It just wasn't right because… because it wasn't you. I'm sorry, I really am. And I'm telling you this cause you deserve to know, but you have to know you stopped it, I couldn't, wouldn't ever, never do anything like that cause I love you."

We continue to lay there for a few moments in silence and I'll have to say the silence scares me. Peeta's silence always seems to scare me. His silence is some of his loudest spoken words. However, the moment I feel Peeta begin to rub circles up and down my back a sense of reassurance washes over me. "Thanks," he says slowly before continuing in a soft tone, "Thank you for telling me that... I un- understand what you're saying and it doesn't make me the most thrilled person alive, but I'm okay, it's manageable... Just note that I'm not saying the next time I see Cato that I might not take a swing at him."

Letting out a sigh of laughter, I nuzzle me head deeper into the crook of his neck.

"No "swinging." No fighting. No anything. I don't feel like having to nurse you back to life."

"Nurse me back to life," he questioned, "You don't think I could take him? I mean, come on."

"Ehhh," I say, "You're a few inches shorter than him and he has to have fifty some pounds on you plus you know I'm not pro-fighting type... And he kinda a friend now so you two "swinging it out" wouldn't be so fantastic." Peeta let out a groan.

"Only for you, but if tries to pull anything I'm not going to let it slid."

…

Sitting on the counter in the back of the bakery, I chew on my cheese bun as Peeta talked to customers out in the front room. This is nice, I think, I missed this. Being with, back with, Peeta was nice. I missed these mornings and nights like the last where we were just… just us basically. I liked how everything felt right, in place. Smiling to myself I pop another piece of my cheese bun into my mouth. God these things are, I think, I've missed these too. Then as I hear the bakery's back door open followed by a loud squeal, I feel Annie squeezing the life out of me. For a small, petit girl she knew how to hug.

"You two are back together," she screams, "Oh this is great! This is fantastic!"

"Annie… air," I breathe out.

"Oh, right, sorry," she mutters letting go of me. Sucking in a few deep breaths I look in front of me where she stands and give her a smile. Was she on steroids of something? I mean really, the girl did yoga, but hugged like she was a body builder.

"So you two worked things out and everything back to normal? Right? Please say yes… pleaseee say yes."

I nod my head popping another piece of the bun into my mouth, "Yeah, we're back together. We're working things out, we're all good."

As I was lowering my hand back down to my lap where the remainder of my cheese bun rested in my right hand, she reached out and grasped my wrist stopping it midway.

"What- is- that?" She breaths out.

"What," I question having no clue what she's talking about.

"That," she repeated.

"What," I restated causing her to give me a looked that said as-if-you-don't-know.

"That," she says, her eyes fixed on and left pointer finger pointed at Peeta's engagement ring around my left ring finger.

"Um," I drag out not sure what to say, "Umm."

"Katniss Everdeen! Is that an engagement ring!? Did Peeta Mellark finally propose to you!? And you said yes!? Are you getting married!? And you didn't tell me!?"

"Um," I said again not really knowing how to answer.

Then looking around the kitchen as if someone was hiding from her she screamed, "PEETA! FIRE!" And then no more than two seconds following Peeta burst through the door.

"Where!?" He yelled taking the fire extinguisher off the wall beside the door. As he looked around the room, pointing the extinguishers nozzle at everything he looked at I said, "Peet, there's no fire. Annie's being… I don't know really, put down the extinguisher."

Setting the fire extinguisher back on the wall hanger, Peeta turned to Annie. "You can't yell fire," he shunned, "You caused our customer to basically run out screaming and nearly gave me a heart attack. God. You can only yell fire if there is a legit fire, Annie!"

Looking to Peeta she raised up my hand waving it around. "You two are getting married!?"

"Yes," he said, "Thus the ring. Now Annie-"

But she cut him off. "Oh no, you can't just past this off like it's no big deal," she said, "You two are getting fucking married!"

They in unison Peeta and I yelled, "Annie, language."

"Sorry, sorry. Right, bakery rules, no cussing," she mumbled before going on, "I mean come on; this is a big deal guys. Peeta I know you think it is cause you look happy as a freakin' peach by the way you look at her with that ring on her finger and Katniss, I'm not sure how you feels, but this is a big deal. Does anyone beside me know?"

Quietly shaking my head Peeta said, "I was going to come back here once everyone left to talk to my fiancé about that."

"And your plan," Annie pressed.

"Have everyone over my dad's place to announce it."

"Good," Annie said with a smile, "We're throwing an engagement party."

…

Gripping my arm around Peeta's waist I lift my right foot and fix the strap of the heels Annie had made me wear. "You okay," he whispers in my ear as I stand back up beside him. I'm not sure if he's talking about the hellous heels or the white sundress or the mass amount of people standing in the back of yard of the Mellark home. Whatever he is asking if I'm okay about I just nod my head. But really I'm not okay, the heels were killing me and I was pretty sure I had lost feeling in my toes, the white sundress kept making me think that people could see my panties, and the mass number of people crowded around us were just scaring the shit out of me, there weren't that many of them either really.

Feeling Peeta rub his hand up and down my arm he allows me to know that he knows that I'm a nervous wreck, but reassures me that everything will be just fine because he is there. Knowing I should trust him, I am still having second thoughts on about the entire night. I don't like people, I don't like public speaking, this is just about my worst nightmare. I mean as a bartender I talk to people, but their usually at least half drunk out of their minds. I wasn't really pro-engagement-party, but pro-mass-text-message yet I got wrapped up in the situation and agreed.

"You ready," Peeta says in my ear as he leans down giving me a kiss on my temple. I nod my head giving Peeta a soft kiss on the lips in return as a sign of reassurance.

"As I'll ever be."

Giving me a hopeful smile, I catch a flicker of joy… happiness… pride… extreme bliss in his eye as he looks to me. So returning the smile, I nuzzle myself as close as possible into Peeta's side.

"Hey," Peeta calls out to the group of people, "Hey everyone! Could you all be silent for a moment, please? We have something to tell everyone!"

Then automatically, the group dies down into a scarce silence. This is it, I tell myself, you're telling everyone you're going to marry Peeta. This is a huge step in life. You're engaged. You're getting married. This is huge. Standing there in silence I hear Gloss's voice ring through the group. "Oh shit, Katniss you're pregnant."

Shooting him a glare I say, "Gloss, shut it. I'm not pregnant."

"Mh hmm, sure. Hormones," Gloss mutters obnoxiously loudly, "She's pregnant."

"Dammit, Gloss, I'm not pregnant. If I was I wouldn't be drinking this beer," I say at a reasonable loud tone, "Peeta and I are getting married."

And then moment the words leave my mouth the group falls more silent than they stood before. There is a moment of silence in which Peeta grips onto me for dear life before everyone breaks into applauds. Letting out a breath I did not know I was holding, one by one people began to come to come up.

"Congrats," Marcus says in my ear as he pulls me into a hug, "Told you everything would work out."

"Yeah, but you forgot to mention all the shit that would have to happen first," I whisper back before pulling away from him. He laughs stepping aside for his father to greet us.

"Congratulations," Eric says to us before looking to me, "Finally get a daughter that I can spoil to death."

I laugh, "Eric, you spoil me enough."

"Sure," He laughed giving me a quick hug. "Lunch soon?"

I nod greeting the next person behind Eric.

"Sooo you're not pregnant," Finn says with a smile.

"Shut it," I say playfully pushing against his chest. Yet giving me a smile he says, "Well congrats Kitty."

Next is Rye accompanied with Clove who gives me a polite smile before Rye picks me up and spins me around. Many other come up, Gloss, Johanna, Seeder, Chaff, Mags, and even Cato. Finally Haymitch made his way up.

Giving me a smile he wrapped his arms around my shoulders pulling me into a hug, "Not going to forget about me, right sweetheart?"

I shake my head. "Never."

Kissing me on the forehead he pulled away and looked to Peeta. "This isn't the first nor the last time you get this talk boy," he says pointing, "But you screw with her, I won't take it. I know she can take care of herself, but you'll hear from me."

And letting out a stiff laugh Peeta shook Haymitch's, "Good to be officially part of the family."

"Congratulations kids."