Chapter 10

Peeta wondered if he was dreaming when Katniss gently kissed his lips.

She pulled her head back and brushed a lock of hair from his face. Although her touch was tender, his skin was even more so, causing him to involuntarily wince.

Tears pooled in her eyes.

"Hey don't cry, it's not that bad. At least my dad and I match now," he joked in a vain attempt to cheer her up.

She gave him a weak smile, as she sat on the edge of the bed looking down at him.

He tried to parse the meaning behind Katniss' kiss. Did she have feelings for him or was it merely a thank-you because he'd stood up for her.

The fight hadn't gone on for very long. The stationmaster, along with a stout man who was in charge of unloading the baggage car had stepped in and pulled Peeta and the taller man, whose name was Cato, apart.

But in those few glorious minutes in the mud next to the train station, Peeta had released all of the pent-up emotions that he'd been holding back for days.

But it had come at a high cost. His head ached and the side of his face throbbed. In fact his whole body was racked with pain. The doctor had given him a pill. But so far Peeta couldn't tell that it was doing a lick of good.

"Peeta, I love you too," Katniss blurt out, answering his unspoken question.

"You do?" He could hardly believe her words. It couldn't be possible. Maybe he hadn't heard her right.

"Yes and I should have told you before. But… well, I knew you were stuck with me."

"Stuck with you?"

"I overheard Rye talking with you that day. And then Miss Trinket spoke of shutting down the bakery and putting your dad in jail. And I saw how you bent back the page on the marriage document when my grandmother showed up."

Peeta's head spun at her words. What in hell was she talking about? Maybe the pain medication was finally kicking in and making it hard for him to follow her.

"Slow down. You're confusing me."

She took a deep breath and explained everything in chronological detail, concluding by admitting, "I was wrong not to tell you."

Her words made him want to leap out of bed and choke his brother for the part he'd inadvertently played in causing a goodly portion of Katniss' distress, and yet it was Rye that had convinced Peeta to stop making excuses and tell Katniss how he felt about her. Did Rye's good advice make up for the trouble he'd caused? Peeta didn't know; all he knew was that he didn't want to fight anymore that day.

He nodded in agreement. "I had my own excuses too, my leg, and your old boyfriend, and the news about your granny… There's no point in it, us not being straight with each other."

"No point," Katniss repeated, giving him a shy smile.

He gazed at her like a lovesick fool, until Katniss blushed and looked away.

"Do you need to take off your prosthesis?"

Damn. This was the worst possible scenario he could imagine to first reveal his disfigurement to her.

"Yes, but..."

"Might as well take care of it now." She reached for the hem of his pants to pull the fabric up.

"No, I need to take my pants off completely."

A lovely pink color crept up her cheeks. "Do you need my help in getting them off?"

He grinned at the thought. It was as if one of his wildest fantasies was coming true.

But still his stump…

Before he could answer, Katniss had her hands on his waistband. With an efficiency that stunned him, she undid the button, pulled down the zipper and tugged his pants off.

Taking a few deep breaths to control the excitement in his body, he fixated his mind on the place where the silver metal joined the flesh.

He glanced up at Katniss to gauge her reaction.

A puzzled expression appeared on her face. "How do you take it off?"

"Help me sit up."

Katniss stood up and put her hand under his back to help him into an upright position.

Dizziness fell over him as his head went vertical. He shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths. When he opened them, his hands automatically flew to his prosthesis. With a few deft motions, it was removed. He handed the limb to Katniss, and quickly lay back down. The dizziness stopped.

"I keep it under the bed so I can put it on in the morning," he mumbled.

Katniss put it away, and then sat down beside him again.

"So now that you've seen my leg, you're not scared off?"

"No."

Still he felt exposed with the remainder of his scarred limb in full view. "I'm cold. Could you help me get under the blanket?"

He had to twist his body, turning half over to help, but she pulled the blanket out from underneath him and covered him with it.

Kicking off her shoes, she turned off the overhead light and opened the window, before climbing into bed next to him, pulling the blanket over herself as well.

They lay on their backs in silence in the semi-darkened room for a few minutes, until both spoke in unison. "I wanted to…"

Katniss stopped speaking and Peeta began to chuckle, turning his head toward her.

"Ladies first."

Katniss twisted onto her side so that she faced him before she began to speak.

"I wanted to ask you where you learned to fight like that?"

"I was on the wrestling team in school before I lost my leg. Now it's my turn to ask a question. How did you ever end up with that guy?"

Peeta couldn't see the expression on her face clearly in the shadows that the lights from the square cast about the room, but from the tone of her voice he could tell she was embarrassed.

"He wasn't like that at first, but then he got upset when I wouldn't do the things he wanted." Her voice shook slightly, causing Peeta to reach for her hand and squeeze it, glad to hear that the bully hadn't intimidated his girl.

"I heard rumors about him being with someone else and I didn't want to believe it, and then one day while I was out gathering plants I saw them together." She sighed loudly.

"I never told my mother or Prim. It was too humiliating. Besides he blamed me."

For cheating on her? Even Rye hadn't been brazen enough to try something like that.

"I'm sorry." Peeta wanted to reach his arm around her, but his ribs were sore. Instead he let go of her hand to run his own along her side, starting under her arm, moving to her waist, then slowly to her hip before stopping to rest at the top of her thigh.

"He…" she began.

"It's not important anymore," Peeta interrupted. "Don't think about it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Even though she was fully clothed, the pressure of Peeta's hand running down her side, made Katniss shiver.

They lay awake talking in whispers for almost an hour, starting with simple things at first, but increasingly delving deeper into their feelings. Peeta spoke of the distress of losing his leg and how it had caused him to give up on any hope of a romantic future.

"But what about those other girls you mentioned?"

"I kissed one girl on a dare from my older brother. The other girl kissed me to make her boyfriend jealous. But it all happened before the explosion. There's been no one since."

"Good," Katniss mumbled, pleased that Peeta wasn't a junior version of his brother.

While they talked, they'd unconsciously moved closer, finding excuses to touch each other. When Peeta confessed about his paltry romantic life, Katniss leaned forward to plant another kiss on his soft lips to erase any memories of those other girls.

Eventually Peeta dozed off mid-sentence. Katniss soon followed, but she couldn't stay asleep for long as she was concerned about Peeta's injuries. She woke up several times during the night to check on him, waking him with a kiss to make sure he was still breathing. As soon as he murmured her name she'd tell him "go back to sleep."

Katniss awoke with a start when the mattress shifted. The room was already light. Peeta was sitting on the edge of the bed attaching his silver limb.

She sat up quickly. "No, Peeta. You can't go to work today."

"I have to start baking. It's already light."

"Your dad and I will figure something out." Katniss jumped out of bed. "Please stay. I'll be right back."

She put on her shoes and left their bedroom in search of Henry. Her father-in-law was already baking. The first batch of bread was in the oven. The fragrant smell greeted her.

"Would you go upstairs and talk some sense into Peeta? He plans to come downstairs and work."

Henry smiled. "It doesn't surprise me. It's just his nature, but I'll talk to him. Stay here, the first batch can come out in five minutes. Rye will be here soon to help."

He left Katniss alone in the back. She put on an apron and waited five minutes before opening the oven to take out the trays.

She heard the front of the shop open. "Be careful there," Rye said as she set the trays down onto the corner of the table. "How is Peeta?"

"Achy." She didn't want to discuss Peeta's injuries with Rye, didn't want to talk about the fight at all.

Rye put two more trays into the oven and immediately slipped into his old routine. Katniss stood by watching him.

"Do you miss the bakery?" she asked, as he kneaded dough.

"Not really. It's kind of fun to learn something new. Could you get me the jar of candied fruits?"

As Katniss looked for the jar on the long shelf, Rye continued speaking. "When Brendan took over from his father, they made shoes for the entire population of Twelve. But in the last ten years or so a factory in Eight was built that mass-produces shoes. A lot of people in Twelve have been ordering the shoes directly from that factory, and using Brendan's shop only for repairs, and the occasional custom design."

She located the jar and brought it to Rye, who took out handful of diced fruits and mixed it into the dough he was kneading.

"Do you think you could get me some walnuts too?"

Katniss returned to the long shelf studying the labels on the jars.

"Delly thinks that her father made a big mistake by not acting as a middleman to the factory, selling the shoes made in Eight in his shop. He's losing a lot of money because he's behind the times.

"We're trying to persuade him to make a visit to Eight, check out their operation, and see how we can work together."

Katniss pulled the jar of walnuts off the shelf and brought it over to Rye. She was amazed at her brother-in-law's enthusiasm about his new career. He hadn't shown much interest in the bakery.

She found herself strangely envious of his newfound passion because it reminded her of what she'd missed these past couple of months; spending time in the woods and helping sick people regain their health.

Henry joined them. "Good, you're here Rye. Thanks for coming."

"I can only stay until ten Dad. We have a couple of repair jobs that need to be completed today."

"That's fine." Henry looked to Katniss. "I convinced Peeta to stay in bed for now at least. Why don't you bring him some tea and toast?"

"All right."

Henry cut a couple of slices of bread from one of the loaves that she'd pulled out of the oven and set it on a plate. He topped them with a dollop of butter. Katniss made a cup of tea, put everything on a tray, and carried it upstairs.

She met her sister at the top of the stairs.

"Is that for Peeta?"

When Katniss nodded, Prim spoke. "Take good care of him. I'm glad he beat up Cato. I never liked him."

The angry look on Prim's face surprised Katniss. She'd had no idea her sister had felt that strongly about her former beau.

"I have some breakfast for you," Katniss said as she entered the bedroom.

Peeta was fully clothed and sitting up against the bed frame. Buttercup was sitting on his lap, and Peeta was petting him under his chin.

"Time to go." Peeta gave the cat a gentle nudge and he climbed off Peeta and jumped to the floor, prancing out of the room.

Katniss set the tray onto Peeta's lap. He reached for the toast and took a bite.

"Your brother is here until ten to help."

"Don't let him decorate any cakes. I don't want to lose any customers."

Before she could respond, Prim was standing in the open doorway, hissing at her. "Katniss, you need to come downstairs for a minute."

"Okay."

Katniss hurried past her sister. She got to the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner to enter the front of the shop. Cato stood before her. One of his eyes was swollen shut and his arm was in a sling.

Katniss took a step back.

How had he gotten in? The bakery wasn't open yet. Rye mustn't have locked the shop door.

"What do you want?" Even though her heart was pounding loudly in her chest, her voice was surprisingly flat.

"Just came to see how you're doing before the train leaves. I didn't get a chance to talk with you yesterday because your husband attacked me. Where is he? Still in bed? I guess I laid him up good."

Before Katniss could reply, a loud crash sounded in the back room and Rye burst through the doorway into the front of the shop holding a rolling pin.

He glared at Cato. "Get the hell out of our shop right now. Before I bust your other arm."

Cato took a step back at the sight of Rye, who was the same height. The smirk on his face faded.

Henry had followed Rye out of the back room. His eyes flew between Cato, Rye and Katniss. "We're not open for business. I think you'd better go."

"Looks like you didn't do so well in your last battle, old man," Cato said, insulting Henry's scabby face. "Are you planning to try to kick my ass too?"

"No, but Buttercup will," Prim blurt out.

Prim had come downstairs. She was holding the ugly cat; he was squirming wildly in her arms. Unable to contain him any longer, she let go, throwing him upward and outward in Cato's direction. The mouser leaped forward with open claws hitting Cato in the face.

Cato let out a howl of pain, and a string of profanities.

It was over quickly, the cat falling to the floor and rushing off to the back room of the shop.

But bloody streaks ran down Cato's cheeks where Buttercup had dug in his claws.

"Primrose," Katniss shouted.

"He deserves it Katniss." Prim scowled at Cato. "I know what you did to my sister."

For the briefest moment, Cato's mouth grew tight and a look of shame passed over him, but then he composed himself.

Katniss looked at her sister in surprise. How had Prim known?

A heavy tread sounded on the stairs. Katniss turned her head to see Peeta turning the corner past the bottom of the stairs. He flushed as he took in the sight of Cato.

"Katniss, take your husband upstairs," Henry said calmly. "Now."

Katniss reached for Peeta's hand. He took hold of it, but when she started to pull him toward the staircase, he stayed planted in place throwing dark looks at Cato.

Does Peeta want to fight him again?

"I asked you to leave once before," Henry told their visitor. "Please do so now."

"This isn't the end of this matter. I'll be filing charges against all of you. I'll shut your business down."

Henry shook his head and sighed.

As Cato opened the door to leave, Henry called out. "Be sure to put some honey on those scratches."

Cato responded by slamming the shop door loudly, causing it to rattle in its frame.

"That son of a …"

"Get back to work Rye," Henry cut him off, and then turned to Prim. "I'd like to have a few words with you young lady."

Katniss led Peeta back upstairs to the living quarters.

"What just happened?" Peeta asked. "I heard shouting and then a howl and I was worried."

"Cato showed up and your brother threatened him, and then your Dad asked him to leave. My sister threw Buttercup at him."

"And I missed all the fun?"

A broad smile crossed Peeta's face and he broke into a low chuckle.

He thought it was funny? But then she started to laugh too because the entire situation was so absurd. Yet there was a kind of justice in it, too. Katniss had entertained a revenge fantasy after breaking up with Cato – wishing her father had been alive to beat him up. And now it had come true in a way, with all the Mellark men, the cat included, acting in her father's stead.

Peeta's laugher stopped as abruptly as it started. He held his hands to his ribs; his face was etched in pain.

"It hurts?"

"A little."

"You need to get some rest."

She led him back to their bedroom and closed the door. Peeta had just sat down on the bed with his back against the bed frame when a timid knock sounded.

Katniss opened it. Prim stood outside. "Henry said for you to stay up here with Peeta and tend him today."

"What about the bakery?"

"We've got everything under control."

"But how?"

"Don't worry Katniss. Just enjoy your day off. You'll be alone up here with Peeta. All day long," Prim added. She bit her lip to keep from smiling.

Katniss' cheeks colored at her sister's implication. Changing the subject, she stepped outside the room and whispered, "How did you know about Cato?"

"A girl at school told me. But don't worry. I never told Mom."

Katniss scowled, and went inside, closing the door. "Guess they don't need me either today."

"That's okay. I need you. Come over here. I have a present for you."

Once Katniss sat down next to him, he pulled a very tiny cloth bag from his pants pocket, handing it to her.

"It's beautiful," she said, as she pulled the gold band out of the bag and held it up. Tiny apples were engraved on the outside of it.

"Let me put it on," Peeta said. She handed the ring back to him and he placed the golden band on the fourth finger of her left hand.

She thanked him with a lingering kiss.

"I guess I should send Miss Trinket a thank-you card for making this all possible," Peeta said when the kiss ended.

Katniss snorted. "Actually Haymitch Abernathy is the man you should be thanking."

"The Mockingjay?"

"It seems that he told your father that my mother's photo was in Miss Trinket's book."

"Did my dad tell you that?"

"No, I heard it from the man himself." Katniss didn't want to tell Peeta the circumstances under which she'd run into The Mockingjay, and fortunately Peeta didn't ask.

"I knew there had to be a reason my father contacted The Capitol Matchmaker's Group. The whole thing was so out-of-the-ordinary.

"All right then, I'll redirect my thanks to The Mockingjay for finding me a match of my own."

Below them sounded the sharp ding of the cash register's bell. The bakery was open.

"Well do you have any thoughts about how we should spend our free day Mrs. Mellark?"

"You need to stay in bed and rest."

Peeta frowned. "Only if you join me. You can't have gotten much sleep. How many times did you wake me last night?"

"I don't know. A lot I think." She was tired, though, and a nap seemed like a fine idea.

Katniss removed her shoes and climbed in on her side of the bed. She closed her eyes and was asleep within a minute or two.

She woke an hour later completely refreshed and slightly confused because the world seemed to have turned a golden hue. Peeta lay on his side, awake and facing her. He'd removed his outer clothing and his prosthesis.

She realized then that their heads were under the blanket and the soft light was sunlight streaming through it. The closed-in space smelled of frosting, and Katniss had the sudden, crazy urge to lick Peeta's bare chest to see if he tasted of it.

She didn't have time to act on it, though, because Peeta reached out his thumb and ran it lightly across her lower lip before leaning forward to claim it. She trembled as he sucked on it before drawing her into a deeper kiss.

Their time at the slag heap had been exciting, but the warm and cozy cocoon they'd created on their bed was far better, especially when she shed her clothes and felt Peeta's bare skin against her own.

Katniss took care to avoid further aggravating Peeta's injuries. But he certainly wasn't complaining, and he even took the lead. There were a few moments of awkwardness because neither had done this before, but the bliss that followed left Katniss breathless.

They fell asleep afterwards wrapped in each other's arms, and when they awoke ravenous for sustenance, Katniss put on Peeta's shirt intent on emptying out the refrigerator in the living quarters. It had dawned on her that she hadn't eaten since the previous morning.

However when she opened the bedroom door, she found that a tray had been placed in front of it filled with rolls, cheese, apples, and two bowls of savory stew.

She carried it inside to Peeta, shutting the door firmly.

"Look." She set the tray on the bed and climbed back onto it.

"You better take my shirt off, I don't want you to spill food on it," Peeta teased.

She rid herself of the garment tossing it onto the floor, and settled under the blanket with Peeta to enjoy their feast.

"You know we never had a toasting," Peeta said, picking up one of the rolls.

"Do you want one?"

"Of course, don't you?"

"I never thought about it. I know my parents had one, but it's not a tradition I grew up around." She looked at the roll in his hand. "Don't we need a flame?"

"Well, technically we do, but these rolls are still warm, so I think we can skip that part. He put out the roll in his hand. "Here take a bite."

She bit into it. The warm roll was filled with nuts and candied fruits. It was the dough Rye had made earlier. Katniss chewed it slowly, savoring it. "This is delicious."

"We make them special at this time of year. Now you offer me your roll."

She picked up the other roll on the tray and held it out to Peeta to take a bite.

He bit off a large chunk.

"You're must be famished."

"For you," he murmured, causing her cheeks grow warm.

"Aren't we supposed to say something to each other?"

"After we finish eating."

So they hand-fed each other, bite-by-bite.

"I love you Katniss Mellark," Peeta said when he swallowed his last piece. "Our marriage may have occurred sooner than I expected, but I know it would have happened anyway because I fell in love with you the minute I saw you."

Katniss grinned at Peeta's bold statement. After all her concerns about the state of Peeta's feelings it left her comforted.

"It's your turn now."

"I love you Peeta Mellark. Exactly the way you are." She ran her hand lightly across the thigh of his severed leg. "I promise to do my best to make you happy."

"You already have." His eyes were watery when he gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Katniss was ready to pull his face back toward her and continue the kissing. They could eat later.

As if reading her mind, Peeta spoke, "Let's eat first. We'll need our energy for the afternoon."

And he was right, she thought, as she lay spent in his arms, watching the winter sunlight disappear from the room.